FRANKFURT: German top-of-the-range carmaker BMW said that profits rose in the second quarter of 2014 on the back of increased demand for its vehicles worldwide.
BMW said in a statement that its bottom-line net profit rose by 27.2 percent to €1.771bn ($2.4bn) in the period from April to June.
Underlying or operating profit was up 26 percent at €2.603bn on a 1.8-percent increase in revenues to 19.905 billion euros. Unit sales rose by 5.3 percent to 533,187.
“The BMW group increased sales volume, revenues and group earnings in both the second quarter and the six-month reporting periods, continuing the successful development of our business,” said chief executive Norbert Reithofer.
“Business benefited perceptibly from an increase in sales volume, with exchange rate factors damping the scale of the increase in revenues,” he said.
Following the “strong” first-half performance, BMW said it would stick to its sales volume and earnings forecast for the full year 2014. “We are on track to achieve our targets for the full year,” Reithofer said. “Within a market environment which continues to be challenging, deliveries to customers and group profit are both expected to rise significantly.”
“After our record sales volume performance in the first half of the year, we are now targeting a significant increase in the number of vehicles delivered to customers in the current year and hence a new sales record of over two million vehicles,” Reithofer said.
AFP
