PARIS -- French car giant Renault (IW 1000/74) said Wednesday its turnover had accelerated by nearly 7% in the third quarter, as European sales outweighed a disappointing performance in key emerging markets.
Renault reported group turnover of 8.5 billion euros ($10.8 billion), a gain of 6.7% over the same period last year.
The company said it had sold a total of 613,000 cars worldwide in the third quarter -- a stable number compared with last year's performance.
The positive turnover was driven mainly by the European market, where new car sales were up 7.6% and Renault boosted its market share by 0.2 percentage points to 9.3%.
However, the company was hit hard by its Russian operations, as the car sector and wider economy gets battered by Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.
New car sales in Russia, Renault's third-largest market worldwide, were down 14.7%.
Sales also suffered in the Americas, where new registrations were down 20.6%, due mainly to a slump in the market in Argentina.
However, there was positive news from the Asia Pacific region, where group registrations were up 37.1%.
Renault said it was sticking by its full-year target of increasing its turnover and overall car sales.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2014
