BMW's Second-Quarter Profit Slips 4.3 Percent On Rising Euro, Model Launch Costs

Luxury car maker BMW AG said Wednesday that its second-quarter profit slipped 4.3 percent, hurt by a strong euro, rising materials costs and the costs of launching new models.

But the Munich-based company said it still expects to sell a record number of cars this year and that its pretax profit would be higher than last year.

Shares of BMW fell more than 5 percent to 43.50 euros ($59.63) in Frankfurt.

BMW earned 753 million euros ($1.03 billion) in the April-June quarter, compared with 787 million euros a year ago. That fell short of the 766 million euros ($1.05 billion) forecast by analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

Sales rose 11 percent to 14.68 billion euros ($20.12 billion) in the quarter, compared with 13.19 billion euros a year earlier as customers from China to the United States opened their wallets for its new models of the Mini and BMW sedans.


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SevorbeupstryIsBack - 8/1/2007 5:41:46 PM

0 Boost

"BMW's Second-Quarter Profit Slips 4.3 Percent On Rising Euro, Model Launch Costs"

Hahaha I love that title. Especially the part "Rising Euro". For crying out loud it's the pathetic weak dollar that caused the slip.

finishline - 8/1/2007 6:39:49 PM

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That is quite the apologist's headline. I think global warming may be at fault, too. And probably the gays somehow.

SupraNeverBack - 8/1/2007 7:25:52 PM

+1 Boost

Need more ZERO-series to save it.

IamEvilHomer - 8/2/2007 12:19:36 AM

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the new negitive 1 series will rock

gsh23 - 8/1/2007 9:26:57 PM

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heh funny, soaring sales but dipping profits. i think bmws aggressive lease rates are getting owned by the weak dollar now. the analysts fears of razor thin margins are looking to be true.

ThierryHenry14 - 8/1/2007 9:53:24 PM

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Still profitable though...

ThierryHenry14 - 8/1/2007 9:58:15 PM

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btw, you guys know EUR v. USD exchange rate March/April 07 v. June/July 07?

1.32 v. 1.38. that may not sound like much to you guys, but in billions of Euro, its a lot.

IamEvilHomer - 8/2/2007 12:18:30 AM

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Audi is up and they don't build Audis in the US like BMW does.
could it be that BMW is buying marketshare ?

Agent009 - 8/2/2007 8:29:11 AM

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Audi has two big things in their favor:

1. They can leverage VAG platforms and resources to lower development costs significantly. Something BMW really can't do on a large scale.

2. Audi has a much smaller sales base in the US so the weak dollar doesn't affect them quite as much. BMW has a larger percentage of total sales in the US.

Together these two factors allow Audi to develop more cars faster and cheaper than BMW while maintaining record profits. Seems like the "we answer to no one, because we are independent" has it drawbacks.

rg12345 - 8/2/2007 9:33:01 PM

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If the US market goes down (because of the dollar getting weaker and weaker) it will be chronicle death for BMW. Since their biggest market is US. They are losing 38% just by conversion rate alone, compared to their competitors who are making better money around the world.