VW's Skoda eyes $1.1 bln gross profit -paper

...a newspaper quoted the firm's chief as saying in an interview.

Skoda Chairman Reinhard Jung told Tuesday's Hospodarske Noviny that the Czech carmaker expected to maintain its profit and sales performance from the first nine months of the year.

Skoda's nine-month sales rose by 12.6 percent to a record 462,429 vehicles.

Skoda, the largest Czech company and the biggest single exporter with annual revenues equal to 7.1 billion euros ($10.18 billion) last year, earlier set a target to make 616,000 cars this year, and reach one million by 2010.

Skoda has been a success story for Volkswagen since Europe's largest carmaker acquired it in April 1991. (Reporting by Marek Petrus; Editing by Paul Bolding) ($1=18.36 Czech Crown) ($1=.6975 Euro)

Keywords: VOLKSWAGEN CZECH/

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]