May 14 (SeeNews) - Romanian car maker Automobile Dacia, a unit of France's Renault, said on Monday its net profit increased 9% to 550 million lei ($142 million/119 million euro) last year as sales too rose.
In 2017, operating profit followed the upward trend, improving by 57 million lei from 2016, so it is business growth mostly that explains this positive development, Dacia's administrative and financial director Liviu Bocsaru said in an interview published on the company's website.
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Dacia's sales reached 23.1 billion lei in 2017, up by 11.45% on the year. Sales of motor vehicles and auto parts to turnover accounted for 92% of total turnover, the official added.
Sales of vehicles and car components outside Romania accounted for 92.6% of Dacia's total sales.
"Export is a priority for us," Bocsaru said, however adding that having a strong local market is important to any company.
In May, Renault group named Antoine Doucerain as the new director general of Dacia and Renault Romania. Doucerain replaced Yves Caracatzanis, who took on another position within Groupe Renault.
Renault bought Automobile Dacia, an ailing state company at the time, in 1999. The total value of the investments made by the Renault Group at Dacia between 2000-2017 is about 2.3 billion euro ($2.75 billion).
Dacia topped the SeeNews ranking of the 100 biggest companies by total revenue in Southeast Europe in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
(1 euro=4.6289 Romanian lei)
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