MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - Volkswagen's commercial vehicle holding company Traton is sticking to its margin target for the full year despite the good first nine months. "Knowing that the final quarter will be very challenging due to the continuing reluctance to buy, especially in Europe, we still want to achieve the upper end of the range of an adjusted operating return on sales of 8 to 9 percent," said CFO Michael Jackstein on Monday, according to a press release. The high point of the margin development was reached in the third quarter - this is unlikely to be repeated in the coming quarters. The Traton share, which has performed well this year, fell.

The MDax-listed share fell by 2.4 percent to 30.40 euros in the morning. In the year to date, the share price has still risen by more than 40 percent. According to analysts, there were hardly any surprises in the figures, as Traton had already presented key data on the adjusted operating result in the third quarter.

In the first nine months, the provider with the brands MAN, Scania, International Motors (formerly Navistar) and the South American VW Truck & Bus achieved a total margin of 9.3 percent, 0.7 percentage points more than in the same period last year. This was due to a faster than expected recovery at the US brand International, but also to good profitability at Scania, Jackstein said in a conference call. Traton also confirmed the remaining annual forecasts for sales and turnover.

In the nine months from January to September, turnover rose by 3 percent year-on-year to 35.3 billion euros. The adjusted operating result grew by 11 percent to 3.26 billion euros. The bottom line for Traton shareholders was a profit of 2.06 billion euros, a good six percent more than a year earlier.

At 189,769 vehicles, incoming orders remained stable compared to the same period last year, which was mainly due to an increase in buses. Trucks were down one percent. Suppliers in the industry are currently struggling with the reluctance to buy on the European market. In Germany in particular, business is not running smoothly at the moment due to the weak economy. Traton CEO Christian Levin referred to the existing short-time working at MAN plants. Although there has been a slight improvement in order intake in Germany, this is not yet enough to end short-time working again./men/mne/stk