The 11 percent rise in 2008 full-year operating profit posted by the German industrial bigwig, MAN AG, fell quite in line with the analysts' estimates. The profit figures of 1.73 billion euros, as against the estimated 1.74 euros, were the best figures in the company's 250-year records.

As per Thomson Reuters StarMine, the shares in MAN buy and sell at 8.4-times forward earnings.

However, MAN's supervisory board plans to cut the company's dividend from the year-before 3.15 euros a share to 2.00 euros a share. The board has also extended the contracts of two of its top executives - CEO Hakan Samuelsson, and the head of commercial vehicles.

With the company having already through with acquisition of its biggest shareholder, Volkswagen's Brazilian heavy-truck production, its much-anticipated alliance with its Swedish competitor Scania is also expected to come through.

Volkswagen has a 72 percent voting stake in Scania, which this month posted a worse-than-estimated drop in quarterly pretax net income.

While projecting its outlook for 2009, MAN said that it expects a fall in its collective group sales in 2009. Nonetheless, it also anticipates that the economic recession notwithstanding, its diesel engine division would report strong earnings!