BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The online used car dealer Auto1 has raised its forecast after a strong first quarter. The Group now expects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) adjusted for special effects to be between 20 million euros and 40 million euros in the current year. Previously, the Group had only held out the prospect of reaching the operating break-even point. The increased forecast was celebrated on the stock exchange with a fireworks display.

The SDax-listed share rose by more than a quarter. By the afternoon, the share price had climbed 26% to EUR 6.80, its highest level since November 2023. Since the record low of EUR 3.268 at the beginning of March, the share price has more than doubled again.

Auto1 has a short but eventful Borsen history - it was one of the last spectacular Borsen IPOs in Germany. On the first day of trading in February 2021, the share price shot up by almost 50 percent from the issue price of 38 euros to 56.76 euros. But that was almost all the good news from the stock exchange.

The share was never worth more than that - from then on it pretty much only went down. The company is currently worth just 1.5 billion euros on the stock exchange. On the first day of trading, it was at times worth around twelve billion euros.

In the first three months of 2024, Auto1 earned 17 million euros before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and special effects. A year ago, the company had posted an operating loss of a good 25 million euros. On average, experts had once again expected the company to be in the red. In addition, the increased forecast is well above analysts' previous expectations.

UBS expert Adam Berlin praised the strong figures, especially in the segment with commercial dealers. The AutoHero private customer business had only slightly exceeded expectations. Ultimately, however, the adjusted operating result in the first quarter was a clearly positive surprise. He had even calculated a deficit. JPMorgan expert Marcus Diebel now expects the average market expectation to rise in the coming months.

Christian Bertermann, company founder and Group CEO, said: "I am extremely satisfied with the business development in the first quarter. We invested heavily in all core areas last year and launched new products on the market, and I am proud that the outstanding work of our team is reflected in the best adjusted operating profit in our company's history."

The Group CEO sees the figures as confirmation of the business model. "We continue to see enormous growth opportunities in the 700 billion euro used car market," he said. "We are continuing to invest in the development of new products, improved user experience and artificial intelligence in order to strengthen our future growth."

The Group recorded a decline in turnover of a good three percent to 1.45 billion euros at the start of the year. In the first three months, sales increased by four percent to 163,766 vehicles. Auto1 is still targeting 610,000 to 665,000 units sold for the year as a whole. In 2023, sales had fallen by almost ten percent to around 586,000./zb/niw/stk