FRANKFURT, July 23 (Reuters) - Europe's largest car maker Volkswagen lowered its 2004 profit target by 600 million euros ($735.7 million) after first half profits fell by almost 20 percent, the company said on Friday.
The carmaker now expects it will post an operating profit of 1.9 billion euros for the full year before special items, 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.