The total net profits of eight automotive companies that trade on the Borsa Istanbul and announced their financial statements of the first quarter of 2018 rose by 36.2 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching TL 836.7 million ($186.1 million).

Four of the eight automotive companies traded on the Borsa Istanbul increased their profits in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period of the previous year, while two reduced their losses. The other two companies however performed negatively in terms of net profits in the same period.

While Ford Otosan announced the highest profit with TL 432.3 million, Doğuş Otomotiv increased its profit by 187 percent compared to the first quarter of the previous year, becoming the best performing automotive company in this period. Doğuş Otomotiv, which announced a profit of TL 81.3 million in the first quarter of the year, had announced a net profit of TL 28.3 million in the same period of 2017.

In the highest net-profit ranking of automotive companies, Ford Otosan was followed by Tofaş with TL 325 million. The fact that these two companies are within Koç Holding was also noteworthy, while Türk Traktör and Otokar, other automotive companies operating within the scope of the holding, reported TL 56.2 million in profit and TL 27.7 million in loss, respectively.

Apart from Otokar, other automotive companies that reported losses in the first quarter were Anadolu Isuzu with TL 16.1 million, Karsan with TL 12.9 million and Tümosan with TL 1.3 million.

While the total sales of the automotive companies traded on the Bourse reached TL 16.4 billion with an increase of 21.5 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, Ford Otosan's sales stood out with an increase from TL 5.4 billion to TL 7.3 billion. Sales for Otokar and Tümosan decreased in this period.

Automotive companies' total assets rose by 14.9 percent to around TL 40 billion in the first quarter compared to the previous year, while Anadolu Isuzu was at the top of the list of those achieving the highest increase in this balance sheet item. Anadolu Isuzu's total assets increased by 66 percent from TL 899.6 million to TL 1.5 billion.

Meanwhile, Otokar was the only company whose equity dropped compared to the first quarter of the previous year. Having an asset size of TL 1.9 billion, Otokar's equity decreased by 15.4 percent to TL 185 million due to the decrease in sales and a transition from profit to loss.