Porsche Predicts $1 Billion Profit for 2009
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Porsche will sell around 80,000 cars in the current fiscal year and expects to post a full-year operating profit of at least $979.5 million, a state politician told a German newspaper.
Claus Schmiedel, a member of parliament in Porsche's home state Baden-Wuerttemberg, told Stuttgarter Nachrichten in an interview to be published on Saturday he had spoken to Porsche's finance chief and taken a look at the carmaker's books.
"On an operating level Porsche does not have a problem -- unlike other producers," Schmiedel said, adding the company will achieve an operating margin of 12 percent.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In the following year Porsche aims to sell more than 100,000 cars and again make a profit of more than 1 billion euros, Schmiedel said.
Porsche, whose fiscal year ends July 31, declined to comment.
Porsche confirmed on Monday it got a 700 million euro loan from its Volkswagen AG unit but insisted it could cope with its debt woes.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Labouring under a 9 billion euro load of debt it had accumulated by the end of January, Porsche was forced to abandon a complete takeover of the Wolfsburg-based carmaker.