BMW’s quarterly profit soars

After-tax profit was 1.697 billion euros, or 2.74 euros per share, in the three months ended September, well above the 476 million euros, or 64 cents per share, a year earlier.

The company’s earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose 33.3 percent to 2.26 billion euros. The EBIT margin, BMW’s main profitability indicator, rose to 5.2 percent from 2.3 percent in the third quarter of last year.

The company’s revenue fell 0.3 percent to 32.31 billion euros from 32.40 billion euros a year earlier, falling short of the 33.84 billion euros estimated by experts. Excluding exchange rate effects, revenues grew by 3.4 percent.

In October, BMW lowered its EBIT margin in the automotive segment for this year to 5-6 percent from the previously estimated 5-7 percent, especially due to weakening Chinese demand.

BMW AG also reported in October that it had sold a total of 588,140 BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce passenger cars in the three months ending at the end of September, 8.7 percent more than a year earlier, while sales in China fell by 0.4 percent. Motorcycle sales rose 5.7 percent to 53,247 in the third quarter of this year.