ThyssenKrupp Says First-quarter Sales Rose 12%

German industrial conglomerate ThyssenKrupp said Friday that sales and orders in its fiscal first quarter rose 12% each and pretax profit more than doubled.

The Duesseldorf-based company, whose products include steel, automotive parts and elevators, also reaffirmed its targets for the full fiscal year.

ThyssenKrupp did not provide net profit figures. It reports full quarterly results Feb. 13.

Pretax profit came to 1 billion euros ($1.29 billion) in the three months that ended Dec. 31, compared with 425.1 million euros a year earlier.

Sales rose to 12.2 billion euros ($15.8 billion) from 10.9 billion euros. First-quarter order intake was 13 billion euros ($16.8 billion), up from 11.6 billion euros a year earlier.

"The good development in the first quarter with a pretax profit of around 1 billion euros reinforces our targets for the fiscal year," CEO Ekkehard Schulz said in a written statement.

ThyssenKrupp said it is confident that its pretax profit will come in above 2.5 billion euros ($3.2 billion) in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.

"Having exceeded this figure in fiscal year 2006, we are confident of doing the same in the current fiscal year," Schulz said. "This assumes that the world economy remains stable and energy prices stay within manageable limits."

Last year's figure was 2.62 billion euros.

"The figures are fantastic, but the outlook looks very conservative," said BHF Bank analyst Hermann Reith in Frankfurt. He said the stainless and steel segments still benefit from very strong orders.

ThyssenKrupp shares were down 0.9% at 35.97 euros ($46.58) in Frankfurt trading.