Luxury automaker Porsche AG issued an ambitious long-term outlook of more than 20% of return on sales, after posting record 2022 earnings on Monday on the back of higher deliveries.
The carmaker said its operating profit rose by 27% to 6.77 billion euros ($7.23 billion) last year, when deliveries rose by 2.6% to 309,884 units.
Porsche CEO Oliver Blume told CNBC on Monday that 2022 was a “very successful year,” with record sales, revenue and operating profit and a profit margin of 18%.
“Looking back over the last year, I think the main effects we had were a very positive product mix, our cost work is very, very efficient and on the other side, we had currency effects at the end to come to such a positive result,” Blume told CNBC’s Annette Weisbach.
“Pricing is important for Porsche and because of our luxury positioning, we are able to go to a very positive pricing level. We are increasing prices continuously, we are not jumping up and down, and have a very clear pricing strategy.”
The company is proposing a dividend of 1 euro per ordinary share and 1.01 euros per preferred share. It issued ongoing growth guidance on both the medium and long term:
“Should the economically challenging conditions not further intensify significantly, we expect a Group operating return on sales for the 2023 financial year in the range of 17 to 19 per cent,” said Lutz Meschke, deputy chairman and member of the executive board for finance and IT.
The medium-term guidance is based on sales revenue ranging between 40 to 42 billion euros.
Meschke added, “In the long run, we are aiming for a Group operating return on sales of more than 20 per cent.”
Porsche represents a substantial portion of revenues for Volkswagen Group, and overtook Volkswagen as Europe’s most valuable carmaker during its first week on the German stock market after listing on Sep. 29 last year. Volkswagen still owns 75% minus one ordinary share of Porsche’s total share capital.
Volkswagen is due to report earnings Tuesday.
Porsche shares provisionally closed down 3.9% on Monday while Volkswagen slipped 3.4%, but the two companies remain up by around 8% and 12% respectively since the start of 2023.