The car manufacturer BMW generated more sales and profits in day-to-day business in the third quarter than expected. Earnings before interest and taxes increased year-on-year by 18.2 percent to 4.35 billion euros, despite the higher proportion of not yet so lucrative electric cars, as the DAX company announced in Munich. Experts had expected slightly less operating profit.
The much-noticed operating margin in the core car manufacturing business rose by almost one percentage point to 9.8 percent. Thanks to increased deliveries, Bavaria increased sales by 3.4 percent to 38.5 billion euros despite the headwind from the stronger euro. The bottom line, however, was higher taxes and negative effects from interest rate hedging transactions. The surplus fell by 7.7 percent to 2.93 billion euros.
The management around boss Oliver Zipse confirmed the annual forecast. Rivals Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz recently had to backtrack somewhat on their profit prospects due to the weak industry situation and supply chain problems.
