BMW’s second-quarter group Ebit fell 3 percent from a year earlier to 2.53 billion euros ($2.77 billion).
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BMW AG reported second-quarter profit in line with analyst expectations as a recovery in European auto demand helped offset a sales slowdown in China. Last week, Volkswagen AG, parent company of BMW’s rival Audi, also said it received a smaller operating income contribution from its Chinese joint ventures.
“The scale of the increase during the forecast period is likely to be held down by fierce competition on automobile markets, rising personnel costs, continued high levels of upfront expenditure to safeguard business viability going forward and upcoming challenges relating to the normalisation of the Chinese market”, BMW said in a statement on Tuesday.
Chairman Harald Krüger said, “We remain committed to achieving an evenly balanced distribution of worldwide sales and maintaining the flexibility to react appropriately to developments on individual markets”.
“It will definitely not be double-digit growth”, Eichiner added. “As the Chinese market is getting more mature and normalised, the post-80s and 90s are emerging as the main consumers of premium brands, and the innovative strength of our products will be certainly more appealing to the Chinese consumers”, he said.
BMW shares fell 2.2% in midmorning trading in Frankfurt.
Munich-based BMW had earlier reported that its second-quarter profits fell by one percent, a figure that nevertheless was better than analysts predicted. The company has already unveiled a new 7 series, which will go on sale this fall.
BMW said global vehicle sales of BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce cars rose 7.5 percent to a new quarterly record of 573,079 units.
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It said it still expected a profit margin in the automotive division of 8-10 percent this year, compared with 9.6 percent last year and, as a result of changes in exchange rates, a “significant increase” in revenues from last year’s 75.173 billion euros.
