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The headquarters of Daimler AG
Photo: Marijan Murat / dpa
For Daimler, 2019 was the year of the crisis - not 2020: At that time, the diesel affair and production problems caused high billions in special charges.
The corona year 2020, on the other hand, the car and truck manufacturer Daimler survived much better than expected.
The Dax group earned four billion euros in 2020 compared to 2.7 billion euros in the previous year.
The shareholders accounted for a profit of 3.6 billion euros, 1.2 billion euros or a good 50 percent more than in the previous year.
In contrast, sales fell by 11 percent compared to 2019 to 154.3 billion euros.
For 2021, Daimler is again setting significantly higher goals.
Despite the pandemic, it has been proven that you can drive the transformation in the industry on your own, said CEO Ola Källenius on Thursday.
Daimler is assuming that sales, revenue and operating profit will be significantly higher in the current year.
The group expects the global economy to recover significantly in the current year.
The group plans to distribute around 1.4 billion euros in dividends to shareholders.
That would be 1.35 euros per share, 45 cents more than in the previous year.
With the proposal, Daimler is well above the analysts' expectations.
Progress in cost savings
The goals essentially correspond to what Daimler - at that time still in a slightly different corporate structure - had set itself in normal times, before the corona crisis, the US-Chinese trade dispute and constantly increasing expenditure on new technology and electric models emerged as burdens.
With regard to the annual figures, Källenius said that there had already been major progress in terms of the cost savings sought.
"In addition, based on a strong product mix and good pricing, we were able to achieve a significant improvement in profitability, especially in the second half of the year," said the manager on Thursday, according to the announcement.
"We are confident that we can maintain our positive momentum if market conditions remain like this."
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caw / dpa-AFX / Reuters