PSA sales jump 42 percent on Opel-Vauxhall acquisition

PARIS (Reuters) - French automaker PSA Group posted a 42 percent increase in first-quarter revenue, lifted by its acquisition of Opel-Vauxhall last year.

Group revenue rose to 18.18 billion euros ($22.2 billion), the maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars said on Tuesday, as vehicle deliveries advanced 44 percent.

The sales number fell short of the 18.35 billion euros expected by analysts, based on the median estimate in an Inquiry Financial poll for Thomson Reuters.

The Peugeot, Citroen and DS (PCD) business, which excludes Opel-Vauxhall, posted a 13.3 percent revenue gain to 10.21 billion euros on a 6.6 percent increase in deliveries, while inventory rose 12.3 percent year-on-year to 438,000 vehicles.

PSA also reiterated its full-year market outlook and mid-term earnings goals for the PCD business.

($1 = 0.8187 euros)

(Reporting by Laurence Frost; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)