BMW continues record year with best-ever Q3
BMW continues to go from strength-to-strength announcing a record third quarter with sales volume, revenue and earnings all hitting new highs.
Group brands BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce all broke new records – both for the quarter and the nine months to date.
Revenues rose by 3.8% to £14,214.23 (€16,547m) (2010: €15,940m). The Q3 profit before financial result (EBIT) climbed by 44% to £1,474m (€1,716m) (2010: €1,192m) and pre-tax profit went up by 21% to £1,412m (€1,644m) (2010: €1,359m).
Group net profit improved by 23.8% to £929.5m (€1,082m) (2010: €874m). The number of vehicles sold during the three-month period from July to September increased by 9% to a new record of 399,218 units (2010: 366,190 units).
New sales volume, revenues and earnings records were also achieved for the nine-month period. Revenues were 15.4% higher at £43,356m (€50,472m) (2010: €43,731m). EBIT surged by 92.8% to £5,561 (€6,474m) (2010: €3,358m), while pre-tax profit rose to £5,291.5m (€6,160m) (2010: €3,166m). This corresponds to an improvement of 94.6%.
The nine-month profit after tax doubled to £3,524m (€4,103m) (2010: €2,032m). The total number of BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brand vehicles delivered to customers up to the end of September increased by 16% to 1,232,584 units (2010: 1,062,216 units).
Norbert Reithofer, group chairman, said: “We have recorded the best third quarter in the company\’s history. During this period, we achieved new records for sales volume, revenues and earnings. The main reasons for this excellent performance have been strong demand worldwide for our vehicles and considerable efficiency improvements.”
Automotive segment revenues in the third quarter went up by 8% to £13,180 (€15,344m) (2010: €14,210m). EBIT climbed by 57.9% to £1,562m (€1,819m) (2010: €1,152m), yielding an EBIT margin for the Automotive segment of 11.9%. The segment profit before tax improved to £1,499m (€1,745m) (2010: €1,285m; +35.8%).
Nine-month segment revenues increased by 20.3% to £39,850m (€46,391m) (2010: €38,551m). EBIT rose sharply to £5,098m (€5,935m) (2010: €2,760m), resulting in an EBIT margin for the period of 12.8%. The segment profit before tax improved to £4,850m (€5,647m) (2010: €2,443m).
The number of BMW brand cars sold in the third quarter increased by 8.2% to 332,066 units (2010: 306,982 units). Between January and September, sales of the core brand rose by 14.5% to 1,021,927 units (2010: 892,737 units); this is the first time that the BMW brand has exceeded the one million mark in the first nine months of a year.
The various models of the X Series continued to perform exceedingly well during the period from January to September. Sales of the BMW X1 increased sharply again and were up by 30.4% to 94,294 units (2010: 72,294 units). The new BMW X3 continued to be popular with customers, with worldwide sales more than doubling to 83,754 units (2010: 35,252 units). The BMW X5 remains market leader worldwide in its segment with a total of 75,055 units (2010: 74,655 units) sold during the nine-month period.
The picture is a similar one for the BMW 5 Series. In total, 250,566 units (2010: 155,648 units) were sold in the first nine months of the year, an increase of 61% against the corresponding period last year. The BMW 6 Series recorded a sales volume of 5,314 units, 3.2% up on the previous year (2010: 5,149 units). The 6 Series Coupé became available in September 2011 and is set to generate additional demand during the final quarter of the year. The BMW 7 Series continues to perform well, with nine-month sales of the BMW flagship rising to 48,842 units (2010: 47,349 units; +3.2%).
The sales volume of the BMW 1 Series – which is now approaching the end of its product life-cycle – totalled 129,041 units between January and September (2010: 151,681 units). The second generation of the BMW 1 Series was launched in mid-September and the group said it would spur demand in the last three months of the current year.
Class leader, the 3-Series sold 288,077 units during the first nine months of the year (2010: 295,608 units). The new BMW 3 Series will be launched worldwide in February 2012.
“The customers\’ response to the new BMW 3 Series has been excellent. We are confident that the new BMW 3 Series will continue the success story of this model series,” said Mr Reithofer.
The Mini brand also achieved a new sales volume record, up in the third quarter by 13.4% to 66,303 units (2010: 58,450 units). In total, 208,216 units (2010: 167,751 units) were sold during the nine-month period, an increase of 24.1% over the previous year. Sales of the Mini Countryman improved further to 61,986 units. The Mini Coupé came onto the markets in September as the fifth model variant.
The Rolls-Royce brand also continues to perform well in Q3 with 849 units (2010: 758 units; +12.0%) sold during the period. In the nine-month period to the end of September, sales rose by 41.3% to a new sales volume record figure of 2,441 units (2010: 1,728 units).
The BMW Group increased its sales volume figures in almost all of the world\’s regions in the first nine months of 2011. In Europe, the number of cars sold rose by 10% to 635,403 units. Sales increased by 9.5% to 209,772 units in Germany and by 9.7% to 128,382 units in the UK. Growth was also recorded in Italy (54,349 units; +8.3%) and France (49,233 units; +2.2%).
Nine-month sales in North America rose to 245,903 units, 13.9% ahead of the previous year\’s corresponding figure. The number of vehicles handed over to customers in the USA increased by 14.2% to 219,962 units.
The BMW Group also registered continued growth in Asia, with 282,476 units (+36.8%) sold in the first nine months of the year – 178,232 units (+45.9%) in China alone. In Japan, the number of cars sold rose by 7.6% to 34,591 units.
