By Cecilia Butini 
 

Daimler AG said late Thursday that preliminary earnings for financial year 2020 rose to beat its guidance and consensus.

The company posted earnings before interest and taxes of 6.60 billion euros ($8 billion) for the year, exceeding a company-provided consensus of EUR5.25 billion. Daimler had previously posted an EBIT of EUR4.3 billion for the previous year.

For 2020, Daimler had guided for full-year group EBIT to be at the previous year's level.

EBIT at the company's Mercedes-Benz Cars & Vans came in at EUR5.17 billion, beating EUR3.85 billion consensus, it said.

Restructuring costs affected EBIT for EUR1.87 billion and free cash flow for EUR301 million, Daimler said. Legal proceedings affected EBIT for EUR164 million and industrial free cash flow for EUR595 million, it said.

The company added that it anticipates a positive business development in 2021 given its "successful" cost discipline which it continued in the fourth quarter, and given expected good underlying demand.

The company will publish further key figures for 2020 and the fourth quarter on Feb 18, it said.

Write to Cecilia Butini at cecilia.butini@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 29, 2021 03:07 ET (08:07 GMT)