Renault CEO "very cautious" on targets

PARIS (Reuters) - Renault Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said on Thursday he is "very cautious" about the company's targets as car sales slow and the financial climate worsens.

Speaking at the Paris Auto Show, Ghosn said he would hold off updating the market on the group's 2008 targets until its third-quarter sales presentation on October 23, after rival PSA Peugeot Citroen reaffirmed its 2010 margin goal.

"We don't know if we are at the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning (of the crisis)," he told journalists during a round table meeting at the auto show.

"I am very cautious on the future ... The French market is resisting well - I hope it will continue."

Ghosn said he would give an update on the carmaker's 2009 goals - which currently include a 6 percent operating margin, up from 3.3 percent in 2007 - with full-year results in February.

PSA's CEO, Christian Streiff, said earlier on Thursday he was sticking to the group's 2010 target of an operating margin of between 5.5 and 6.0 percent.

Figures released on Wednesday showed a rise of 8.4 percent in September new car sales in France, but a 1.4 percent drop adjusted for the same number of working days.

Europe-wide the picture has been worse, with sharp falls in July, down by 7.3 percent, and August, by 15.6 percent, on dwindling consumer confidence and continuing high fuel prices, according to industry body ACEA.

Despite a worsening worldwide financial crisis, Ghosn said the company's credit lines were secure, and a decline in raw material prices was "among the few pieces of good news the crisis brings."

Ghosn declined to give a volume sales target for the new version of Renault's best-selling Megane.

But he said he hoped the new Megane, which was unveiled at the show on Thursday morning, would win a greater market share than the old version, which has sold more than 8 million units since its launch in 1995.

(Reporting by Helen Massy-Beresford and Matthias Blamont; editing by John Stonestreet)