Editor's note: TRW's first quarter included $37 million in restructuring and asset impairment charges. An earlier version of this story misstated that figure.
DETROIT (Reuters) -- Safety and braking components supplier TRW Automotive Holdings Corp.'s first-quarter profits fell, but results from China and elsewhere helped mitigate reduced business in the troubled European market.
Net income in the first quarter fell 21 percent to $162 million, or $1.29 a share, from $206 million, or $1.59 a share, in the year-earlier period.
The decline was driven by more sales of lower-profit products as well as planned increases in costs to support future growth, TRW said in a statement. The quarter included $37 million in restructuring and asset impairment charges.
Excluding one-time items, the company earned $1.51 a share, 7 cents stronger than analysts' expectations, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters. Guggenheim Securities analyst Matthew Stover said a lower-than-expected tax rate added about 3 cents a share to results.
Revenue edged up to $4.21 billion, topping the $4.13 billion that analysts expected. The company credited growth in China for offsetting sharply lower vehicle production in Europe.
"The ability to mitigate the challenging automotive industry conditions in Europe, where vehicle demand and production continues to decline, demonstrates the benefits of TRW's global footprint and highly diversified product and customer mix," CEO John Plant said in a statement.
"We expect our strong market position will continue to strengthen in the future as the Company executes its significant growth strategy."
The company also hiked its full-year sales outlook as it raised its forecast for industry vehicle production in North America and Europe.
"The market will be encouraged that TRW dodged a European bullet in the first quarter (and) raised guidance for the year," Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker said in a research note.
TRW said it expects full-year sales in the range of $16.6 billion to $16.9 billion. In February, it forecast $16.4 billion to $16.7 billion.
It sees second-quarter sales of about $4.3 billion.
For the year, the company sees industry production volumes of 16 million vehicles in North America, up from its previous forecast of 15.8 million.
It also boosted its outlook for European production by 100,000 to 18.4 million vehicles and said it expected a modest recovery in the second half. TRW still expects expansion in production volumes in China and the rest of the world.
Philip Nussel contributed to this report.
