German premium car-manufacturer Audi on Thursday reported that sales and net profit for the financial year ended December 2011 rose by 24.4 per cent and 66.2 per cent, respectively, to €44 billion and €4.4 billion . Car deliveries during the period rose by 19.2 per cent to 1.3 million vehicles, topping that of industry leader BMW.

Sales growth outperformed volume growth thanks to the increased sales of more profitable models such as the A8, which jumped 72 per cent, while that of the A7 sport-back rose over four-fold.

In a strong sign of buoyant demand owing to consumer willingness to shell out big-bucks, the company's operating margins expanded by 2.7 percentage points to 12.1 per cent.

Net profits received a big nudge of €690 million from hedging and interest income. German carmaker Volkswagen owns 99.5 per cent of Audi's shares.

China factor

Notably this year, China emerged as the top market for Audi's cars. Sales in the Middle Kingdom rose by 37.3 per cent to 313,000 units.

This trumped the performance both at home in Germany and the more competitive US market.

The company invested close to €2.9 billion in improving operations and expanding distribution reach. After a buoyant year for luxury car makers — during which Audi had seen sales volumes in India soar by 84 per cent to 5,511 cars — Audi CEO Mr Rupert Stadler told reporters, “for the current year, we expect stronger sales than in 2011. In the Chinese market, we are aiming to achieve double-digit growth again for 2012.”

The company plans to increase its Indian portfolio in 2012 with the introduction of luxury SUV Q3. Sales of Audi-owned Lamborghini's super-luxury cars also rose by 23 per cent to 1,602 units.

> adarsh@thehindu.co.in

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