AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)05/07 Report--

On May 6th, BMW Group released its first-quarter results, showing that its revenue in the first quarter of 2020 was 23.25 billion euros (about 178.3 billion yuan), an increase of 3.5 percent over the same period last year; profit before interest and tax was 1.38 billion euros (about 10.6 billion yuan), an increase of 133 percent over the same period last year; profit before tax was 798 million euros (6.1 billion yuan), an increase of 4.7 percent over the same period last year. Net profit was 574 million euros (4.4 billion yuan), up 2.4% from a year earlier.

BMW Group said the sharp increase in profits was due to an one-time allocation of 1.4 billion euros in the same period last year to deal with EU antitrust fines.

Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, BMW Group's global sales fell 20.6% to 477111 vehicles in the first quarter. Of this total, BMW brand sales fell 20.1% to 411800 vehicles, MINI brand sales fell 23.4% to 64449 vehicles, and Rolls-Royce brand sales fell 27.2% to 853 vehicles. Specific to the major markets, BMW Group sales fell 30.9 per cent to 116600 vehicles in China, 18.3 per cent to 221000 vehicles in Europe and 17.4 per cent to 64956 vehicles in the US market.

BMW Group said that at the beginning of this year, it also predicted that sales would continue to grow, but due to the impact of the epidemic in February, sales in China's auto market fell sharply, and by March, the impact of the epidemic had spread to Europe and the United States. Its dealerships in Europe and the United States have been temporarily closed because of the epidemic.

The Chinese market is BMW's largest single market in the world. according to sales data, although BMW's sales maintained a steady growth in January, due to the severe impact of the domestic COVID-19 epidemic in February, sales fell by 30% in the first quarter compared with the same period a year earlier. However, with the situation of domestic epidemic prevention and control improving, BMW's sales in China showed signs of gradually recovering in March.

In April, most car companies' sales in the Chinese market have resumed growth, but the situation in overseas markets is still not optimistic. In the European and American markets, the production and sales of cars are almost at a standstill. At present, the epidemic situation in most European countries has improved, and most car companies have gradually resumed production in their factories in the European market, while in North America, the epidemic is still in a state of surge, and there is still a great risk that car companies want to resume work and resume production. 'now we will gradually increase production according to the needs of each market, 'said BMW Group CEO Zipze.

BMW said it would continue to be under pressure for the rest of the year as the epidemic reduced demand for cars. As the decline in car sales directly affected the performance of the automotive division, revenue in the first quarter was 17.989 billion euros, down 6.4 per cent from a year earlier, EBIT was 229 million euros, and EBIT margin was 1.3 per cent, compared with-1.6 per cent in the same period last year. To this end, BMW Group cut its profit forecast for its automotive division. BMW, which had expected an EBIT margin of 2-4% for the auto business this year, is now between 0-3%.

At the same time, BMW Group said that the current updated business analysis outlook does not take into account a worse scenario, and it is expected that the epidemic in the second quarter will have a lasting impact on performance, and the government will continue to introduce relevant grounding measures. this will have a great impact on the market, and the recession in more major markets may even be longer and deeper.

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