Skip to main content

Renault profit soars on lower restructuring costs

PARIS (AP) — French car maker Renault says its earnings soared last year thanks to lower restructuring costs, and forecasts further growth in 2015.

France’s number two car maker behind PSA Peugeot Citroen says in a statement Thursday net profit more than doubled to 1.89 billion euros ($2.1 billion) last year, while new car and light truck registrations climbed 3.2 percent to 2.7 million vehicles. Renault’s 2013 earnings were weighed down by a 1.3-billion-euro restructuring charge.

The maker of the best-selling Clio hatchback forecast 2 percent growth in Europe’s car market this year but warned it expects “high volatility” in its main emerging markets.

Europe’s car market grew 5.7 percent in 2014, the first positive year-on-year result since the global financial crisis began in 2007.

Police in Italy find shipment of coffee beans stuffed with cocaine

Police in Italy discovered cocaine stuffed inside individually hollowed-out coffee beans, after opening a parcel addressed to a fictional Mafia boss from a Hollywood movie. Investigators found 130 grams of cocaine in a 2 kilogram shipment of coffee beans that arrived at Milan's Malpensa Airport from Colombia, according to a statement from the Guardia di Finanza financial police.
Read Next Story