 "Daimler quarterly profit jumps 54% despite China slowdown")
Daimler's second-quarter operating profit jumped 54% to a record quarterly high as sales of trucks and new luxury car model launches helped it defy a slowdown in China.
Adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) rose to 3.8 billion euros ($4.15 billion), Stuttgart-based Daimler said on Thursday, well above the 3.31 billion euros forecast in a Reuters poll.
The profit margin at its cars division was boosted by the global rollout of a new C-Class and the launch of the top-end Maybach S-Class.
Analysts cheered the results and shares rose 2.2% in early trading.
"Daimler has never reported a higher clean EBIT number in a quarter in its history," analysts at Evercore ISI said.
Analyst Juergen Pieper of Bankhaus Metzler said: "The Stuttgarters are leaving the pack behind. That could continue for the next five or six quarters."
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While rival auto makers recorded a slowdown in China sales thanks to an economic slowdown and an anti-corruption drive, Mercedes saw June deliveries in China jump 38.5%.
"We expect sales momentum to continue," Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said in response to a question about China demand.
Deliveries of Mercedes-Benz passenger cars in the first half of 2015 rose 20% to 500,700 vehicles, helped by a 66% rise in demand for the C-Class sedan, Daimler's top-selling model.
Zetsche said Mercedes-Benz cars had not yet reached their product launch sweet spot as the carmaker is working on a new version of its E-Class that is due to hit showrooms next year.
China has seen strong demand for Daimler's top-of-the-line Mercedes-Maybach limousines, with 500 deliveries a month, Zetsche said. Prices of the Mercedes-Maybach S600 start at 187,841 euros.
Thanks to strong sales of top-end models, the return on sales from ongoing business at Mercedes-Benz Cars jumped to 10.7% in the second quarter, up from 7.9% in the same period last year.
Daimler said it expects group revenue and EBIT to increase significantly in 2015, helped by the availability of a new version of its A-Class and the GLE sports utility vehicle in September.
Daimler is the first of the German premium auto makers to release second-quarter results.
($1 = 0.9146 euros)