Porsche may have gotten in over its head when it tried to take over Volkswagen outright, but that doesn't mean the German automaker is struggling to sell premium sports cars. The Stuttgart-based automaker is planning on selling 80,000 units in 2009 at an astounding profit margin of 12%. That's $979 million in US currency, and more profit than most automakers several times its size will likely achieve during the global economic downturn.
The news of Porsche's healthy booty comes as a bit of a surprise considering its flirtation with bankruptcy back in March. Porsche has 9 billion euros in debt hanging over its head, though it told Reuters it can cope with the red ink. Porsche had to borrow 700 million euro from Volkswagen to get itself out of an earlier jam, and it's now discussing a merger with Europe's largest volume automaker.
Claus Schmiedel, a member of parliament in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, says that Porsche intends to increase sales in 2010 to 100,000 units, and that it intends to again eclipse 1 billion euro in earnings. Not too shabby for an automaker pushed to the brink of insolvency.
Created
