BMW Group said Thursday its earnings and sales rose in the second quarter, helped by demand in China. Net profit after minorities in the April-through-June period was 2.19 billion euros ($2.59 billion), up 13% from EUR1.94 billion a year earlier. Earnings before interest and taxes rose 7.5% to EUR2.93 billion, beating expectations for EUR2.87 billion. Revenue grew 3.1% to EUR25.8 billion.
In the automotive segment, BMW’s closely-watched margin on EBIT rose to 9.7% in the quarter from 9.5%. BMW said it would stick to its 2017 target for a margin between 8% and 10%. BMW provided a break-out of regional sales for the quarter showing vehicle sales in China up 25% and Europe rising 0.4%. In the Americas, second-quarter deliveries fell 6.1%, held down by the contracting automobile market in the U.S., it said.
Deliveries of BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brand vehicles in the second quarter 2017 rose by 4.6% to 633,582 units (2016: 605,534 units). Deliveries in the first half of the year increased by 5.0% to 1,220,819 units (2016: 1,163,139 units).
Deliveries of BMW brand vehicles worldwide totalled 1,038,030 units (2016: 986,557; +5.2%), surpassing the one-million mark for the first time during a first half-year period. Volume growth was driven by a variety of models including the BMW Group’s flagship BMW 7 Series, and the BMW X-family models. More than 32,000 units of the BMW 7 Series were sold during the period under report, 26.9% up on the previous year. Deliveries of the BMW X1 in the first half of the year jumped by 45.2% to nearly 137,000 units. The BMW X5 (nearly 90,000 units; +10.6%) also recorded significant growth.
Deliveries of 181,214 units in the period from January to June 2017 also represented a new record for the MINI brand (2016: 174,898 units; +3.6%) in the first half of a year. Six-month deliveries of the MINI Clubman totalled 29,867 units (2016: 27,511 units; +8.6%), while the new MINI Convertible saw volume growth of 30.3% to 18,699 units (2016: 14,354 units).
The Rolls-Royce brand, based in Goodwood, England, delivered 1,575 units to customers during the first half of 2017 (-6.5%). The corresponding six-month period in 2016 had benefited greatly from the launch of the highly popular Rolls-Royce Dawn leading to particularly high sales. This basis effect and the break in availability of the Phantomahead of the launch of the next generation of that model were the main reasons for the year-on-year volume decrease.
The company confirmed its outlook for a slight increase in pretax profit in 2017, as widely expected. BMW also said it now expects its automotive segment’s revenue to show a “solid increase” in 2017–an improvement on its previous outlook for a slight rise.
