In FRANKFURT item headlined "Volkswagen cuts profit goal, but less than feared", please read in paragraph 7 .... Chief Financial Officer Hans Dieter Poetsch... instead of ... Chief Executive Officer Hans Dieter Poetsch ... (corrects title).
A corrected version follows.
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FRANKFURT, July 23 (Reuters) - Volkswagen slashed its 2004 profit target following weak first half earnings, Europe's largest carmaker said on Friday, but its shares climbed as many investors had feared even worse guidance.
The company now expects to post operating profit before special items of 1.9 billion euros ($2.33 billion) for the full year, compared with its original guidance of more than 2.5 billion.
Before special items, operating profit for the first half fell 19.8 percent to 979 million euros on revenues of 45.9 billion euros, a rise of 7.3 percent.
According to the average in a Reuters poll of 24 analysts, first half operating profits were forecast to drop to 821 million euros compared to the 1.22 billion earned in the previous year.
The company added it expected well over one billion euros in savings this year from its ForMotion cost-cutting programme, following 400 million in the first half.
Widely expecting a profit warning, many analysts have been busy revising their estimates lower following disappointing car sales in Volkswagen's core domestic market, considerable losses in North America and continuing strength in the euro.
After already forecasting a 1.2 billion euro hit to full-year operating profit due to negative currency effects, Chief Financial Officer Hans Dieter Poetsch had warned in late April that its 2004 guidance would be "very difficult" to reach if the euro was to sustain a climb above $1.25.
Shares in VW climbed 2.2 percent to 33.37 euros per share by 0938 GMT following the results.
Volkswagen shares have, however, been the worst performer by far among those listed in the DJ Stoxx European autos index .
VW has watched its market cap drop by more than a quarter since the beginning of the year, compared to only a three percent drop by the next worst stock in the European sector, BMW .
VW forecasts growth in deliveries to customers in the last six months of the year to match the 1.7 percent rise in the first half, when it delivered 2.52 million units.