Volkswagens Spanish unit Seat S A said yesterday that it had doubled its net profit in 1997 to 11.05 billion pesetas ($71 million) versus 5.34 billion in 1996. It is the firms best result ever, SEATs chairman Alain de Smedt said. Sales rose to 773.91 billion pesetas versus 607.31 billion pesetas in 1995. In 1996, SEATs operating profit rose to 14.55 billion pesetas versus a loss of 13.85 billion pesetas in 1995. Output during 1997 totalled 467,289 units compared to 415,213 the year before. Its total debt fell by 116 billion pesetas in 1997 to 262.89 billion pesetas. During the first two months of 1998, SEAT increased its sales by 19.7 per cent to 22,412 units, with sales to retailers up 30 percent to 97,516 units.(Reuters)
For the full year SEAT has forecast a revenue of around 830 billion pesetas.