Germany-based Bosch, the world's largest car components supplier, on Thursday warned against nationalism even as it presented an optimistic forecast for the full year. "Our environment is not only transforming in terms of technology and business, but also more than ever with regard to politics, I would even say populism," said chief executive Volkmar Denner.

"We want a world and above all a Europe without nationalism," the CEO continued in a speech at a research centre in Renningen, near Stuttgart in southwestern Germany. German business leaders have watched with anxiety as France's anti-EU, anti-euro presidential contender Marine Le Pen has come closer to the Elysee palace than ever before, becoming one of two candidates in a run-off vote slated for Sunday. Le Pen's headline policies include calls to close France's borders and return to the former national currency, the franc. "Globalisation is useful to our business, while returning to borders would harm it," Denner went on, echoing the arguments of Le Pen's pro-business opponent Emmanuel Macron in a television debate Wednesday night.

Bosch, which employs some 390,000 people from 150 countries, aims to boost revenue between 3.0 and 5.0 percent year-on-year in 2017 after achieving a 3.6-percent expansion last year. It reported a 12 percent increase in revenue in the first three months of this year compared with 2016's first quarter. The privately-owned firm releases less detailed results than companies listed on the stock market.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017