Volkswagen, Europe's leading car maker, said on Monday it had booked net profit of €677 million ($875 million) in 2004, down 30.9 percent from the 2003 figure. "Despite a difficult operating environment, our 2004 earnings exceeded the guidance published in July," VW said in a statement. Operating profit before special items fell by 12.3 percent to €2.02 billion and pre-tax profit declined by 18.8 percent to €1.10 billion, while sales rose by 4.9 percent to €88.96 billion and customer deliveries increased by 1.3 percent to 5.079 million cars. Volkswagen said it would pay an unchanged dividend of €1.05 per ordinary share and €1.11 per preference share to shareholders for 2004.