Daimler maintains full-year outlook, spurring shares

German automaker Daimler held to its full-year forecasts on Friday, saying that business in the second quarter was in line with expectations. Daimler said in a brief statement that underlying or operating profit, as measured by earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), amounted to 5.2 billion euros ($6.8 billion) in the period from April to June. And revenues amounted to 29.7 billion euros. The news sent Daimler shares soaring on the Frankfurt stock exchange where they were the biggest gainers, adding 5.3 percent. The group did not provide any comparative figures for the second quarter of 2012. But at the time, the carmaker had given EBIT as 2.2 billion euros and sales as 28.9 billion euros. Nevertheless, it was not immediately clear whether those figures still applied or whether they had been recalculated since then. "The earnings situation from ongoing business improved in the second quarter," the statement said, without elaborating further. It did, however, reveal that the sale of Daimler's stake in the European aerospace giant EADS had generated windfall gains in the second quarter of 3.2 billion euros. "Second-quarter earnings are largely in line with our internal expectations and thus also with our current outlook for the development of EBIT in 2013," Daimler said. "The current EBIT forecasts for the Daimler Group and its divisions therefore continue to apply unchanged. On the basis of our unchanged assumptions for the further development of our key markets and the ongoing growth initiatives and efficiency programs, we continue to assume that EBIT in the second half of the year will be higher than in the first half," it said.