Ford Otosan Q4 net profit beats forecastsUPDATE 1-Ford Otosan Q4 net profit beats forecasts
7:29AM ET on Thursday Feb 18, 2010 via Thomson Reuters
* Ford Otosan Q4 net profit up 149 pct to 125 mln lira
* Q4 sales up 58 percent but undershoot forecasts (Adds detail, background)
ISTANBUL, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Turkish automaker Ford Otosan posted a higher-than-expected 149 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit after exports and domestic sales campaigns lifted demand hit hard by the economic slowdown.
Ford Otosan, jointly owned by Ford Motor Co. and Turkey's largest company Koc Holding, generated fourth-quarter net profit of 125 million Turkish lira ($82.3 million) on sales of 1.78 billion lira, figures Reuters calculated by subtracting nine-month from full-year figures.
The average forecast in a Reuters poll of nine analysts was for net profit of 109 million lira on sales of 1.819 billion.
Profit at Ford Otosan and other carmakers has been recovering from poor figures at the end of 2008 and the start of 2009 as carmakers were repeatedly suspended production to save costs during the global economic downturn.
The auto industry is Turkey's biggest exporter and a major employer and was a key focus of government incentives in 2009 to prop up flagging demand.
In 2009 as a whole the carmaker earned net profit of 333.43 million lira on sales of 5.7 billion lira.
Ford Otosan shares surged more than 140 percent last year, outperforming the main share index which doubled in value. (Reporting by Alexandra Hudson, editing by Will Waterman) ($1=1.519 Turkish Lira)