Record BMW sales beat market expectations

RECORD car sales helped BMW AG beat market expectations with a one-third rise in quarterly pretax profit, boosting its shares and prompting analysts to consider raising full-year earnings estimates.

The carmaker said yesterday that second-quarter profit before tax rose to €1.23 billion, easily beating the average estimate of €1.04bn from 25 analysts in a Reuters poll, on the back of a surprisingly strong performance at its core automotive division.

BMW said it sold more cars both on a quarterly and half-year basis than ever before.

In the three months to June, it delivered 365,547 vehicles to customers, a 3.2% rise, as 3 Series sales helped compensate for a drop in demand for the X5 offroader.

Analysts had long criticised BMW’s inability to boost financial performance on the back of its popular model line-up, including the 3 Series, but this time BMW delivered with an earnings increase of 16% at its core division.

BMW reaffirmed it expected a record €4bn in pretax for the full year and still foresaw a year-on-year rise even when beneficial one-off effects are stripped out.