MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - VW's commercial vehicle holding company Traton performed better in the third quarter than experts had expected. Based on preliminary calculations, the operating result adjusted for special effects rose by 19 percent year-on-year to 1.14 billion euros, as the MDax company surprisingly announced on Monday after the close of trading. Market experts had only expected just over one billion, the Group said. The share price rose by 4.6 percent on Tuesday morning, reaching its highest level since July.

The net cash inflow (net cash flow) in the vehicle business - i.e. excluding financial services - amounted to 1.28 billion euros in the third quarter, around twice as high as a year earlier. The VW commercial vehicle holding company also performed better operationally. An adjusted operating profit of 9.6 percent remained from turnover. A year earlier it was 8.4 percent.

Traton said that the US brand International Motors (formerly Navistar) was recovering faster than expected from supplier problems with mirrors. At Scania, Traton had benefited from a better price and product mix. The company plans to present its full quarterly report this Monday (October 28).

Analyst Fabio Holscher from the analyst firm Warburg Research praised: "The results show how well Traton is coping with the difficult business environment. However, one trader criticized the fact that Traton had only confirmed its annual targets and that the order intake had not been published.

Traton's management, led by CEO Christian Levin, is still targeting a range of minus 5 to plus 10 percent for sales and turnover in 2024 compared to the previous year. The Management Board expects the operating profit margin adjusted for special effects to be between 8.0% and 9.0%. In 2023, the company sold 338,183 vehicles, achieved turnover of just under 46.9 billion euros and an adjusted operating margin of 8.6 percent./men/mne/ngu/jha/