STUTTGART, Germany, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Porsche is bracing for flat underlying earnings this year as the sports-car maker steps up spending to expand production capacity at its two German factories in Stuttgart and Leipzig.
The maker of the iconic 911 sports car will invest more than 700 million euros ($923.8 million) alone at its main plant in Stuttgart in the next five years, Chief Executive Matthias Mueller told reporters on Thursday.
Porsche has said it would invest roughly 500 million euros in expanding its Leipzig factory.
Sales rose 5.2 percent in August to 11,481 cars while eight-month deliveries were up 15.5 percent to 106,777 vehicles, the company said on Thursday.
For the full year, it is forecasting sales will reach a new record high, surpassing 150,000 cars in 2013 after around 143,000 last year.
Porsche, which has been a fully-owned unit of Volkswagen since August of last year, posted operating profit of 2.4 billion euros in 2012.
($1 = 0.7577 euros) (Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach, Writing by Andreas Cremer, Editing by Christiaan Hetzner)