Firm expects recovery to continue

BMW’s 2009 third quarter earnings fell 86 per cent on last year’s levels, but the firm still returned a 55million euro (£49.5m) profit before tax and interest.

Despite seeing a drop in year-on-year sales in 2009 of between 10 to 15 per cent, the firm still managed to return a pre-tax profit for the quarter thanks to its cost cutting measures.

CEO Norbert Reithofer expects the market to begin to recover over the next while, while BMW’s sales should be boosted by the launch of the new X1 and 5-series GT models.

“We expect that the markets will make a gradual recovery over the coming year,” he said.

In the first nine months of 2009, BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce sales fell a combined 15.7 per cent to 939,554 units. BMW’s auto division has seen an operating loss of 358m euro so far in 2009, but overall it saw a 169m euro (£152m) operating profit.

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