The car maker BMW expects to again this year with a profit slump, exacerbated by the austerity measures. The pre-tax profit will be caused by many burdens and a high level of investment in electric mobility, significantly below the 9.8 billion Euro in the previous year, informed the Munich-based carmaker in the balance sheet presentation of 2018 on Wednesday. By the end of 2022 to be saved, therefore, by many measures, more than twelve billion euros.
group CEO Harald Krüger said, BMW needs to work on his earning power, to the increasing pressures and to the change in the electro-mobility and self-driving cars in the future from our own power brace. “The Transformation of our industry is in full swing. In this environment, high level of profitability is sustainable is crucial to continue to be drivers of change,” said chief financial officer Nicolas Peter.
In the stock market, the Outlook is not arrived well: The shares were up more than four percent, the biggest slide since half a year.
last year, high costs, and burdens from currency effects and raw material had prices the profit down. The operating margin in the auto business shrank by two percentage points to 7.2 percent. The company’s net profit fell nearly 17 percent to 7.2 billion euros. For 2019 Krüger turned in an Ebit margin of six to eight percent.
sales to rise slightly this year
From the upper class segment in normal times the usual margin between eight and ten percent, BMW said goodbye for the time being. Kruger said, this margin will stay a fundamental claim in a stable environment. The paragraph is expected to rise slightly this year. Chief financial officer Nicolas Peter said, specific predictions are in the face of political uncertainty and fluctuating markets difficult.
In the current year, rising costs are squeezing in addition, the more stringent CO2 targets is the result. The amount of the expenditure BMW is not quantified. Added to this are again loads of negative currency effects and raw material costs in the three-digit million range.
Kruger also indicated a reduction in personnel. The number of employees should remain, despite the hiring of IT specialists in the Future in areas such as digitisation, Autonomous Driving and electric mobility at the level of the previous year. “We have a compared to previous years, increased natural attrition due to the baby bulge,” it said in the press release. The give BMW the opportunity to do more on the topics of the future to align and raise efficiencies.
BMW and Daimler join forces
in Order to share the costs for the transition towards electric mobility and self-driving cars, combining BMW and Daimler to their forces. After the establishment of a common mobility company for car-sharing, driving, Parking and charging services, had explained to the two upper-class competitor, more recently, the intention to the cooperation to the next technology generation of Autonomous driving at the beginning of the next decade on the road. Experts consider it possible that the two southern German car manufacturers also work in other areas. (Reuters)
