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Volkswagen, Europe's biggest carmaker, has defied recessionary gloom by reasserting that it would beat last year's record sales and profits this year.
In an upbeat report, VW announced a 15 per cent jump in operating profit in the first nine months of this year to EUR4.9 billion (BD2.35 billion). Net profit rose 28.5 per cent to EUR3.7 billion.
But the world's third-largest car manufacturer (behind Toyota and General Motors) indicated that earnings had been squeezed in the third quarter, that the current quarter was proving difficult, and that 2009 would be "very tough".
The group is at the centre of a storm over volatile trading in its shares, after Porsche, which wants to take it over, said it had amassed a controlling stake of 74.1 per cent and was aiming for a "domination agreement", or 75 per cent holding, next year.
Hans Dieter Potsch, VW's chief financial officer, threw a spanner in Porsche's works by suggesting that its plans could be derailed by a prolonged court battle.
The European commission is poised to take Germany back to the European court of justice over its refusal to remove a 20 per cent blocking minority vote enjoyed by Lower Saxony under a 1960 "VW law". The court banned this law a year ago, but Berlin's revised version retains the effective veto on significant decisions for the state.
Potsch refused to comment on VW's stance, saying that this was an issue for the firm's supervisory board, but added that VW had played no role in the recent frenzied trading, selling none of its "put" options.
