Volkswagen expects supply chain woes to ease and sales to rise to 331 billion euros ($352 billion) in 2023, prompting shares of the top carmaker in Europe to its highest level in almost three months.
The automaker’s outlook, which follows preliminary 2022 results released last month, also calls for a strong recovery in vehicle deliveries through 9.5 millionan increase of more than 14% year-on-year.
“Our performance last year demonstrated the improved resilience of the Volkswagen Group in the midst of a difficult global context,” said Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz. “We expect supply chain bottlenecks to gradually decrease in the current year, allowing us to service the high order book.”
The company’s shares rose 7.5%, leading the Frankfurt DAX benchmark index after the news broke, reaching its highest level since December 13.
Volkswagen revenue is expected to grow between 10% and 15%, which would indicate 2023 sales of between 307,000 and 331,000 million eurossignificantly higher than Refinitiv’s estimate of $280 billion.
The group’s operating return on sales is expected to be between 7.5% and 8.5%, up from 7.9% in 2022, the firm said, adding that its dividend would increase by 1.20 euros per share to 8.70 euros per ordinary share and 8.76 euros per preferred share for 2022.
According to Refinitiv estimates, holders of Volkswagen preference shares were expected to earn a dividend of 8.46 euros per share.
