BMW thanks to the majority takeover of a Chinese partner with a whopping profit jump

Created: 05/05/2022 10:59 am

Production at BMW's main plant in Munich: The Bavarian car manufacturer started the year better than analysts had expected.

© Sven Hoppe/dpa

The Munich carmaker BMW started the year better than expected.

The majority takeover of the Chinese partner BBA also gives the group a profit in the billions.

Munich - The carmaker BMW did a little better than expected in day-to-day business in the first quarter.

Earnings before interest and taxes increased by 12.1 percent to 3.39 billion euros, as the Dax group announced on Thursday.

The Munich-based company achieved an operating profit margin of 8.9 percent in the most important division with car construction, which is more than analysts had previously estimated.

Without the consolidation effect of the majority takeover Chinese joint venture BBA, the margin would have been 13.2 percent thanks to high sales prices.

The bottom line is that BMW posted a net surplus of almost 10.2 billion euros, more than three times as much as a year ago.

This was mainly due to a valuation effect of the previously held BBA shares of provisionally 7.7 billion euros.

Thanks in part to the inclusion of the Chinese production partner BBA, sales increased by 16.3 percent to 31.1 billion euros.

The group only lowered its outlook for the current year at the beginning of March.

Instead of eight to ten percent, BMW is now only assuming an operating margin of seven to nine percent for 2022.