1:00PM New York - MAN Group fourth quarter profit jumps 33%; 2008 is expected to be strong.

Revenue Review

MAN Group, the European truck maker, said that its fourth quarter sales rose 35% to 5.23 billion euro on strong growth across all businesses.

Sales in Russia rose more than 300% in 2007 and have risen over 100% in Poland over the past half-decade.

In Poland, the third largest European truck maker has started another factory, where it intends to produce more than 15,000 trucks annually. This is much more than the 12,500 average that competitors, Scania and Volvo, expect to build in Russia.

Fourth quarter orders rose 11% to 5.07 billion euro and were up 17% to 19.4 billion euro for the year, spurred by firmer diesel engines demand.

In 2007, MAN Group posted a revenue increase of 19% from a year ago to 15.5 billion euro on strong growth across all businesses.

The company said commercial vehicles sales climbed 20% and were up 21% in the diesel engines division. Sales for turbo machinery gained 22% while industrial services sales rose 5%.

In the fiscal year, MAN Group said all production plants had been stretched to capacity, and this curtailed further sales growth.

The MAN Group said it shipped over 100 000 vehicles in 2007 as demand for transport services strengthened.

Return on sales hit twin figures at 11.2% from 8.5%, while ROCE rose to 31.9% from 28% reported a year ago.

Earnings and Dividend Review

In the quarter, net income rose 33.5% to 331 million euro from 248 million a year ago.

Earnings jumped 47% to 2.26 euro per share from 1.54 euro per share in the year-ago period.

The company said dividend will be 35% of earnings per share. In the year-ago quarter, MAN paid a dividend of 2 euro per share.

Full-year 2007 profit increased 32% to 1.23 billion euro or 8.24 euro per share.

Operating profit rose to 1.73 billion compared with 1.10 billion in 2006.

Segment Review

For 2007, the German carmaker said sales of commercial vehicles jumped 20% to 10.4 billion euro, of which 512 million euro emanated from the lease of the company’s finance vehicles. Minus this, sales in the division were up 14%.

Truck and bus deliveries at this division rose 15% to 100, 609.

Diesel engines sales rose 21% to 2.2 billion euro while turbo machinery sales at 1.1 billion euro were up 22%, and a production plant will be built in China in the fall of 2008. Industrial services sales rose 5% to 1.4 billion euro.