(Adds details, dividend, background, shares)
FRANKFURT, March 30 (Reuters) - German tyre and car part maker Continental AG posted a 23 percent rise in core operating profit on Tuesday, in line with analyst forecasts, and said it expected 2004 earnings to grow before one-off items.
But the world's fourth-biggest tyre maker also said it was examining major restructuring measures in its U.S. car tyre business, which is suffering from intense price pressure, and its shares fell three percent.
Continental said in a statement its earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) totalled 855.2 million euros ($1.04 billion) in 2003, while sales came in at 11.5 billion, against 11.4 billion in 2002.
It proposed a dividend of 0.52 euro, up from 0.45 in 2002.
Nineteen analysts polled by Reuters had on average forecast EBITA of 854 million euros for the year, up from 694 million in 2002, and sales of 11.477 billion.
"Despite the difficult situation of the automotive and automotive supplier industry, we managed not only to increase our sales but also to once again top the previous record earnings of 2002, surpassing them by far," Chief Executive Manfred Wennemer said at a news conference.
Wennemer said earlier this month that 2004 had started well and has said both sales and earnings should rise this year.
He is expected to comment further at the news conference about the company's planned 227-million-euro takeover of rubber and plastic part maker Phoenix .
Continental said on Monday it would bid 15 euros per share for Phoenix to bolster its profitable ContiTech unit, a deal which should yield annual savings of 30 million euros and which already has the support of Phoenix's two main shareholders.
Shares in Continental were trading four percent weaker by 0848 GMT, having outperformed the blue-chip DAX index and Dow Jones Stoxx European autos index so far this year with a gain of some five percent.
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