Automaker Audi's 1Q revenues rise 23.3 percent

BERLIN (AP) - Audi AG, the maker of luxury cars including the TT, A5 and A8, said Monday that its first-quarter operating profit and revenues rose on demand in the U.S., China and parts of Europe.

The company, which is a unit of Volkswagen AG and based in Ingolstadt, said that its operating profit in the first quarter was euro478 million ($636.5 million), up 32 percent from the euro363 million it reported a year earlier. It did not provide net profit figures. Operating earnings exclude financial items such as interest and taxes, as well as one-time gains and losses.

Revenues rose by nearly 24 percent to euro8.3 billion in the January-March period compared with euro6.7 billion last year.

For 2010, Audi said it expects to increase deliveries of its cars to more than 1 million and cited growth in Asia and the Pacific and a "significant recovery" in the U.S. market.

The outlook comes ahead of plans to launch its next-generation A8 along with versions of its A7 and A1 models.

In the first quarter, the number of Audi-branded cars delivered rose nearly 26 percent with 264,077 sold, making it the strongest first-quarter in Audi's history.

Shares of Audi were up 4.1 percent to euro575 in Frankfurt trading.

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