	vw s audi says profit fell around pct in audi ag nsug f the pct owned subsidiary of volkswagen ag vowg f said profit in fell by around half compared with when it achieved a record mln marks net profit a rise of pct on the previous year managing board chairman wolfgang habbel told a news conference he expected both profit and turnover to rise this year compared with but he said it was questionable whether profit would return to levels he gave no figure for profit audi had predicted last year that profit would likely fall by an unspecified amount from s record levels habbel said turnover in rose to billion marks from billion in and looked certain to rise to over billion this year asked whether audi would pay a dividend to vw to help the parent company overcome its currency losses habbel said audi would ensure vw got a share of profits audi s entire net profit was paid into its own free reserves to help finance investment in the previous years vw had received pct of audi s ings as a dividend habbel blamed the profit decline on disruptions to output caused by the introduction of the new audi model on currency factors and on negative publicity in the u s about alleged sudden acceleration of some of its audi models as reported audi s sales in the u s dropped nearly pct to last year habbel said the u s sales decline would probably bottom out in audi s worldwide car deliveries fell two pct to of the total exports fell pct to a rounded but domestic sales increased to a rounded from in habbel said the new audi had sold extremely well in the first two months of helping audi to increase its overall market share in west germany to pct from pct in the same months of sales in europe also rose but u s sales fell further he said without giving details worldwide deliveries in the first two months increased eight pct to audi said in january that car production would rise to over from in when output had fallen compared with s habbel said audi expected the rise in output to lead to further new hiring of employees at the end of audi s workforce stood at a record a rise of over reuter 
