Car industry Slump in profits at Mercedes-Benz due to weakness in China
The car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz suffered a slump in profits last year. The main reason for this was poor business in China.
20.02.2025, 07:32
SDA
Consolidated earnings fell by a good 28 percent year-on-year to 10.4 billion euros, as the DAX-listed company announced on Thursday. The Stuttgart-based company had already had to drastically cut its profit expectations in September.
In China, the most important single market, wealthy customers are buying less expensive Mercedes cars, which is eroding the high profitability of previous years. In 2024, only 8.1 percent of sales before interest, taxes and special items remained as operating profit in the passenger car business across the Group.
This was slightly less than experts had expected. A year earlier, it had been 12.6 percent, and even higher in the two previous years.
Turnover fell by 4.5 percent to 145.6 billion euros for the year as a whole. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) fell by almost a third to 13.6 billion euros. Nevertheless, this was slightly better than experts had feared.
The dividend is to be reduced by one euro to 4.30 euros per share. In addition, Mercedes intends to launch a further share buyback of up to five billion euros, subject to approval by the Annual General Meeting.
