German automotive concern Volkswagen AG recorded a net profit growth in the first quarter of 2017 by almost 44% to 3.403 billion euro compared with 2.365 billion euro for the same period a year earlier. The growth was due to the strong performance of the Volkswagen brand, according to Volkswagen report.
Experts interviewed by FactSet, on average, predicted this figure at 2.44 billion euro.
Volkswagen's revenue in January-March rose 10.3% to 56.197 billion euro.
The company's operating profit rose to 7.8% from 6.1%.
The company's quarterly operating profit rose 27% to EUR 4.367 billion. At the same time, Volkswagen brand received operating profit of 869 million euro against just 73 million euro a year earlier, despite a 1.3% decline in sales to 1.44 million vehicles.
Volkswagen CEO Matthias Müller said: "Our efforts, focused to increa