Daimler AG, which sold off most of its stake in Chrysler earlier this year, posted a loss of EUR1.53bn for the third quarter on Thursday.
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However, the loss was expected because it is related to write-offs concerning the Chrysler sale.
The EUR1.53 billion figure compares with a profit of EUR868m a year earlier.
Excluding the one-time charges, the company said it would have posted profits of EUR1.1bn.
Daimler said in a statement that the entire transaction has so far cost EUR2.6bn in the third quarter, which is below the EUR3.0bn it had anticipated.
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By GlobalDataDaimler sold 80.1 percent of Chrysler to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, ending a turbulent nine-year partnership.
Daimler said sales rose 6 percent in the July-September period to EUR25.6bn, compared with 24.2 billion euros a year earlier.
Its Mercedes-Benz Cars group posted a pretax profit of EUR1.3bn in the quarter, up 57% from EUR850m a year earlier, as sales rose by 12% to EUR14.1bn.
Unit sales of Mercedes-Benz Cars division increased by 10% to 337,300 vehicles in Q3. The Mercedes-Benz brand increased its unit sales by 9% to 308,000 vehicles, achieving a new record for the third quarter. And the smart brand sold 26,900 cars, also 9% more than in the prior-year quarter despite its focus on one model series; unit sales of the smart fortwo increased by 77%.
That was offset by a 15% drop in pretax profit at the Daimler Trucks unit, which fell to EUR480m.
Daimler said the Trucks division’s earnings were below the high level of the prior-year quarter as a result of the expected decrease in unit sales in the NAFTA region and in Japan. The EBIT of Daimler Financial Services was significantly lower than in Q3 2006, primarily due to expenses for the set-up of a separated financial services organisation in the NAFTA region following the separation of Chrysler Financial.
The Daimler Trucks division sold 117,700 vehicles worldwide in the third quarter of this year (Q3 2006: 136,100). The figure reported for unit sales in Q3 2006 included an additional 5,854 Sprinter vans produced by Trucks NAFTA. The decrease in unit sales was primarily a result of low demand caused by stricter emission regulations in the United States, Canada and Japan, as well as a general market downturn in the United States.
Truck sales fell 12% percent to EUR7bn.
For the first nine months of the year, Daimler earned EUR2.29bn down from EUR3.8bn a year earlier, on sales of EUR72.9bn, up from EUR72.2bn in the same period of last year.
