Continental said it had boosted first quarter 2016 sales by 3% year-on-year to EUR9.85bn. Net income rose 12% to EUR734m and earnings per share to EUR3.67 from EUR3.28.
Operating profit (EBIT) increased 6.4% to over EUR1bn with a margin of 10.6% compared with 10.2% in 2015. Adjusted EBIT climbed 8.4% to EUR1.1bn. At 11.3%, the adjusted EBIT margin was 0.7% higher.
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"Our strong cash flow enabled us to reduce our net indebtedness in the first quarter of this fiscal year by EUR459m to EUR3.1bn overall, compared to the end of 2015. The gearing ratio thus came to 23.1%. This means we have almost achieved our medium-term goal of getting this ratio below the 20% threshold," said CFO Wolfgang Schafer. Compared with the same period of the previous year, net indebtedness was even EUR1bn less. Net indebtedness had increased in the first quarter of 2015, primarily as a result of the acquisition of Veyance Technologies. At the end of the first quarter of 2015, the gearing ratio was still at 33.5%.
In the first three months of this year, the automotive group achieved sales of EUR6.0bn. The adjusted EBIT margin was 7.6%.
