Daimler sets record in anniversary year

German auto giant Daimler, which owns Mercedes-Benz, says it achieved record sales and profits in 2011, its 125th anniversary year.

Daimler said it booked a bottom-line net profit of 6.029 billion euros ($A7.46 billion) in 2011, a leap of 29 per cent from the previous year.

Underlying profit, as measured by earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), jumped 20 per cent to 8.755 billion euros.

Unit sales were up 11 per cent at 2.111 million cars and revenues grew by 9 per cent to 106.5 billion euros, the group said.

"We achieved our best-ever results in 2011 for unit sales, revenue, EBIT and net profit. All of our divisions contributed to this success," boasted chief executive Dieter Zetsche.

The Mercedes-Benz Cars division also "never performed better than in 2011," setting new records for sales, revenue and underlying profit, he said.

In the fourth quarter alone, net profit soared 57 per cent to 1.785 billion euros and revenues climbed 10 per cent to 29.066 billion euros.

Looking ahead o the current year, Daimler said that - assuming global industry-wide growth of 4.0 per cent, driven primarily by emerging markets in Asia - it expected unit sales to "increase again significantly this year and that revenue will also continue to grow."

In terms of profits, underlying earnings were expected to match last year's level, Daimler added.

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