Daimler Truck forecasts higher 2023 earnings as pays out first dividend

BERLIN (Reuters) – Daimler Truck will pay its first dividend of 1.30 euros ($1.38) per share after hitting its 2022 targets and expects higher earnings and revenue this year despite ongoing supply chain bottlenecks, the company said on Friday.

Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose 55% to 3.9 billion euros in 2022 on 28% higher revenues, with adjusted returns of 7.7%.

Looking ahead, the truck and bus maker expects sales on par with 2022 this year but a revenue boost for the group to 55-57 billion euros and adjusted returns of 7.5-7.9%, indicating it will carry on raising prices.

Daimler Truck raised its earnings and revenue outlook for the year in October on a stronger-than-expected third quarter, having previously said that it felt less impact from the war in Ukraine on its supply chains than some competitors.

Still, its Asia business suffered in 2022, in part due to lockdowns in China, with adjusted earnings down 60%.

Europe saw the highest earnings boost at 112% on an 18% rise in unit sales.

($1 = 0.9446 euros)

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Editing by Rachel More)