Turkish car maker Tofas said on Friday its consolidated net profit surged 321% in 2005 to 141.9m lira ($106m), boosted by financial earnings, according to Reuters.
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The company’s gross operating profit was up 9.4% at 278.6m lira. Tofas is a joint venture between Italy’s Fiat and Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding.
HSBC Investment analyst Cenk Orcan told the news agency that the profits were well above expectations.
“The 2005 results point to a significant improvement in net profit and operating profitability when compared with the weak performance in 2004,” Orcan reportedly said.
He told Reuters a rise in capacity utilisation to 64% from 58% and a fall in sales and marketing expenditure had a significant impact.
“Net profit more than quadrupled because of exchange rate changes and extraordinary earnings from real estate sales during the year,” he reportedly said.
Net financial income totalled 72.2m lira, of which net interest income was 61.1m lira, Reuters added.
The company reportedly plans to invest a total EUR520m in 2006 and 2007 and will begin production of two new Fiat models from the second half of 2007, increasing production to full capacity.
Total annual output will exceed 300,000 units in 2007, up from the current 250,000, the report added.
