Hyundai Motor expects solid revenue growth this year

South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co forecast solid vehicle sales and revenue growth in 2023, easing concerns that a weak global economy may dampen car demand.

The upbeat forecast echoes a positive outlook provided hours earlier by Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc which said its aggressive price cuts have ignited a wave of demand for its vehicles.

Shares in Hyundai extended gains made earlier on Tesla’s outlook and were up 6% in afternoon trade.

Hyundai said it is targeting revenue growth of 10.5%-11.5% this year. It expects a 9.6% jump in North American vehicle sales and a 20.5% surge in China vehicle sales.

It also flagged potential improvement in its operating profit margin, predicting a margin between 6.5% and 7.5% compared with 6.9% in 2022.

For the October-December period, it reported a tripling of net profit to 1.7 trillion won ($1.4 billion) after one-off costs were booked in the same period a year earlier.

That, however, fell short of a Refinitiv SmartEstimate of 2.5 trillion won drawn from 18 analysts.

Like many other automakers, Hyundai benefited from the tight supply of new vehicles last year which have kept retail prices high.

Hyundai also said it would cancel 315 billion won worth of treasury stock, equivalent to 1% of outstanding common and preferred shares.

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