Sweden’s Autoliv, the world’s biggest seat belt and airbag maker, reported an 18% rise in third-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by new products, and forecast higher sales in the fourth quarter, Reuters said.
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“The roll-out of side-curtain airbags, the expansion in Asia, stronger foreign currencies and market share gains in safety electronics drove sales and earnings,” the company reportedly said in a statement.
Pre-tax profit came in at $US78 million, compared to a consensus analyst forecast in a Reuters poll of $76.3 million, up from $65.7 million a year ago.
Sales were up 14% at $1.2 billion and the company raised its quarterly dividend by 15% to 15 cents a share, the report added.
“We expect Autoliv’s sales increase during the fourth quarter to exceed the rate recorded in the third quarter 2003,” the company said, according to Reuters.
Autoliv said that due to an expected strong sales performance and a continued favourable sales mix it expected to reach or even slightly exceed the operating margin of 7.5% recorded in the fourth quarter last year, the report added.
