The Gothenburg-based company, bought by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. from Ford Motor Co. (>> Ford Motor Company) in 2010, said full-year operating earnings rose to 6.62 billion Swedish crowns ($776.6 million) from 2.13 billion in the previous year.

Volvo is banking on a 75 billion crown investment programme in a string of new models and plants to secure it a firm foothold in a premium market dominated by German heavyweights such as Daimler's (>> Daimler AG) Mercedes-Benz and BMW (>> Bayerische Motoren Werke AG).

Strong sales of the Swedish brand's new XC90 SUV helped drive a rise in revenues to 164.0 billion crowns from 137.6 billion in 2014 while a slowdown in China was more than offset by growth in other markets.

The company, one of Sweden's biggest by sales and number of employees, said in a statement it saw growth in all its main markets - China, Europe and the United States - underpinning what would be third straight year of record sales in 2016.

(Reporting by Niklas Pollard; Editing by Alistair Scrutton)

Stocks treated in this article : Ford Motor Company, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, Daimler AG