Porsche's 'best year ever'

Porsche reported Friday that strong demand for luxury vehicles in Asia and the US as well as the launch of new models, has helped the company secure a 22.3-percent rise in sales for 2012.

"Last year was the most successful year in the history of our company," Porsche Chief Executive Matthias Müller told reporters at an annual news conference in Stuttgart.

The auto maker, which became a part of Germany's Volkswagen Group last year, announced its 2012 operating profit jumped by 19.3 percent to 2.44 billion euros ($3.2 billion), with its net profit coming in at 1.84 billion euros. Even in crisis-stricken Europe, Porsche managed to log an 8-percent rise in sales.

High demand continues

Porsche said it was able to cut its net debt from 2.58 billion euros in 2011 to 1.87 billion euros at the end of last year. The company's workforce hit a record high of some 17,500 in 2012, up more than 14 percent from a year earlier.

The carmaker expressed cautious optimism about its business outlook for 2013, warning the record results last year would be hard to top.

"With our international position and a strict cost management, we are striving for a result built upon the very high level of the prior year," Chief Financial Officer Lutz Meschke explained.

And the company looked set to deliver, having sold more than 22,500 units during the first two months of the current year, which is more than in the same period in 2012.

hg/hc (AFP, Reuters, dpa)