DaimlerChrysler beats despite Chrysler

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Quarterly earnings top expectations as strength in Mercedes sales offsets big loss at Chrysler

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -- DaimlerChrysler's first-quarter earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) jumped 73 percent to $2.76 billion (�2.04 billion), handily beating market expectations despite another big loss at Chrysler Group.

Shares of DaimlerChrysler (Charts) gained 2.5 percent in pre-market trade Tuesday.

The German auto company forecast on Tuesday that 2007 EBIT would rise to �7 billion excluding the impact from selling Chrysler, giving its first detailed outlook for this year.

Analysts polled by Reuters had on average expected EBIT of �1.545 billion in the three months to end-March.

The world's fifth-biggest carmaker, which announced on Monday it was selling a majority stake in Chrysler to private equity group Cerberus Capital Management, was reporting under IFRS accounting standards for the first time.

Chrysler Group lost �1.49 billion before interest and tax in the quarter, twice as bad as expected, after restructuring costs of 914 million.

Chrysler's Price: Embarrassingly low

Mercedes Car Group -- which includes the premium Mercedes-Benz, luxury Maybach and Smart minicar brands -- swung to a better-than-expected EBIT of 792 million euros. It reiterated its forecast of generating an operating margin of at least 7 percent this year.

Group net profit advanced 152 percent to 1.97 billion euros, helped by a gain from selling shares in aerospace group EADS.

Boosted by a global boom in freight transport by road, its market-leading truck group had operating profit of 528 million euros, up by a quarter and ahead of market expectations.

DaimlerChrysler stock was off session highs but still up 3.2 percent to 63.65 euros by 1138 GMT while the DJ Stoxx European car sector index rose 0.6 percent.

So far this year, shares of DaimlerChrysler are up 37 percent, compared to a 16 percent gain for rival Ford (Charts, Fortune 500), and a 1 percent loss for GM (Charts, Fortune 500).

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