By Mathias de Rozario

nd to remove an(Reuters) - Digital mapping specialist TomTom expects annual sales of its location technology unit to come at the lower end of its guidance range of 490-520 million euros ($536-569 million), it said on Friday after weak demand for new cars hit its third-quarter revenue.

It reiterated the group-level outlook for 2024 revenue at the low end of its 570-610 million euro range.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

A slowdown in global auto demand has impacted TomTom, which makes a bulk of its sales from location technology applications for cars. In July, it suspended its 2025 targets and trimmed its revenue expectations for 2024 because of this.

The group, whose shares have lost more than a fifth of their value since the start of the year, has been investing in its new mapping platform, TomTom Orbis, to try to compensate for the steady decline in its consumer division sales by growing the location technology business, including automotive.

CONTEXT

The automotive market has continued to deteriorate since TomTom reported its last quarterly results, with a 18.3% drop in new car sales in the European Union in August to their lowest level in three years.

The location data pioneer, which started by providing a navigational tool for turn-by-turn directions, is now developing high definition self-driving maps that integrate consumer data and advanced driver assistance systems.

BY THE NUMBERS

TomTom's revenue fell to 140.7 million euros in the third quarter, missing analysts' consensus of 142 million, weighed down by declines in the automotive and consumer divisions.

Its loss before interest and tax narrowed to 4.1 million euros in the quarter from a loss of 8.7 million a year earlier, smaller than the loss of 5 million euros seen in the company-provided consensus.

($1 = 0.9146 euros)

(This story has been refiled to correct the dateline and to remove an incorrect picture)

(Reporting by Mathias de Rozario in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi)