The German luxury car maker BMW said yesterday it had returned to profit in the second quarter of 2009, but posted a loss for the first half and did not give a full-year outlook.
BMW said it made a net profit of €121 million in the three months from April to June, well above an average analyst forecast for a loss of €25 million compiled by Dow Jones Newswires.
In the first quarter, BMW had posted a net loss of €152 million.
The second-quarter figure, while back in the black, was well below the profit of €507 million BMW had posted in the same period a year earlier.
Combined with its loss in the first quarter of this year, BMW recorded an aggregate loss of €31 million for the first half of 2009.
Chairman Norbert Reithofer said in a statement that "even though some indicators suggest that the economic situation might improve in the second half of the year - we remain cautious."
Mr Reithofer told a telephone conference that BMW was speaking with the French group PSA Peugeot Citroen about extending their cooperation which currently concerns motors for small cars.
BMW is also in talks with German rival Daimler, which makes Mercedes-Benz but "those talks are not yet completed" either, Mr Reithofer said.
The BMW statement said it managed to partially offset a 19.5 per cent drop in unit sales to 615,000 vehicles with lowered costs, in particular for its workforce, and productivity increases.
But citing "an increasingly competitive environment" and "high volatility of international financial and raw materials markets" the group did not give a detailed outlook for all of 2009.
"It is not currently possible to make further quantitative assertions regarding earnings," it said. BMW repeated that it expected 2009 sales to be lower than in the previous year.
Second quarter sales fell by 10.9 per cent to €12.971 billion, while for the first six months of 2009, they were off by 12.1 per cent at €24.48 billion.
Core earnings before interest and tax plunged by 60.2 per cent to €169 million in the quarter and by 90.9 per cent to €114 million in the first half of the year.
"Consumers are becoming less willing to spend, particularly when it comes to purchasing durable goods. Car markets worldwide are therefore experiencing double-digit downturns," the statement said.
In Tokyo meanwhile, Toyota Motor announced a smaller than expected loss in its first quarter and upgraded its outlook for the rest of the year, offering a ray of hope for the battered industry.
Mr Reithofer said that large volume car companies were the main beneficiaries of govenment funded car-scrapping programmes in countries like France, Germany and the United States.
Shares in BMW fell by 4.91 per cent to €31.30 in morning trades on the Frankfurt stock exchange, while the DAX index of German blue-chips was 1.12 per cent lower overall.