Volkswagen, Europe's biggest carmaker, said it more than doubled net profit last year as worldwide sales topped the eight-million mark for the first time.

VW, whose brands include Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT and Skoda, said it booked net profit of 15.799 billion euros ($21.2 billion) in 2011, up from 7.266 billion euros in 2010.

After payments to minority shareholders, the bottom-line profit stood at 15.4 billion euros, compared with 6.835 billion euros a year earlier, it said.

Operating profit raced ahead by 57.8 per cent to 11.27 billion euros.

Deliveries to customers topped the 8m mark for the first time, rising by 14.7 per cent to 8.265 million vehicles and revenues rose by 25.6 per cent to 159.34 billion euros.

In comparison with other carmakers, that places VW ahead of Japan's Toyota in terms of unit sales last year, but still behind US giant General Motors.

In the wake of its strong performance, VW said it would pay an increased dividend of three euros per ordinary share and 3.06 euros per preference share for 2011, compared with the 2010 payout of 2.20 euros and 2.26 euros respectively.-TradeArabia News Service