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German auto and truck giant Daimler, maker of Mercedes-Benz cars, said on Thursday it achieved record sales and profits in 2011, but warned that earnings will be flat this year.

Daimler said in a statement it booked bottom-line net profit of 6.029 billion euros ($8.0 billion) in 2011, a leap of 29 percent from the previous year.

That would allow the carmaker to increase the dividend payout to shareholders to 2.20 euros per share compared with 1.85 euros in 2010.

And employees would also receive a bonus of 4,100 euros each.

Daimler said its underlying profit, as measured by earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), jumped 20 percent to 8.755 billion euros.

Unit sales were up 11 percent at 2.111 million cars and revenues grew by 9.0 percent to 106.5 billion euros, the group said.

"We achieved our best-ever results in 2011 for unit sales, revenue, EBIT and net profit. All of our divisions contributed to this success," boasted chief executive Dieter Zetsche.

The Mercedes-Benz Cars division also "never performed better than in 2011," setting new records for sales, revenue and underlying profit, he said.

Unit sales of the division's Mercedes-Benz, Maybach and Smart cars rose by 8.2 percent to 1,381,400 vehicles and revenues were up 7.0 percent at 57.4 billion euros.

The success was primarily due to higher sales, particularly in the mid-sized and SUV (sports utility vehicle) segments, it said.

In terms of region, the car division's growth was driven mainly by higher sales in China and the United States.

In the trucks division, unit sales were up 20 percent at 425,800 vehicles and revenues up 20 percent at 28.8 billion euros, with growth seen in all main regions.

In the fourth quarter alone, grouop net profit soared 57 percent to 1.785 billion euros and revenues climbed 10 percent to 29.066 billion euros.

Looking ahead to the current year, Daimler said that -- assuming global industry-wide growth of 4.0 percent, driven primarily by emerging markets in Asia -- it expected unit sales to "increase again significantly this year and that revenue will also continue to grow."

In terms of profits, however, underlying earnings were only expected to match last year's level, Daimler said.

Investors appeared satisfied with the record earnings and the prospect of an increased dividend and Daimler shares were the strongest gainer on the Frankfurt stock exchange, climbing 4.84 percent to 46.78 euros.

AFP