BMW Sees Loss After Virus Hammers First-Quarter Earnings
May 06 2020 - 6:50AM
Dow Jones News
By William Boston
BERLIN--BMW AG, the German luxury car maker, on Wednesday
reported lower profit in the first three months of the year, and
said that the lockdown of auto markets in the U.S. and Europe to
prevent Covid-19 infections from spreading would push the company
into the red in the second quarter.
"The second quarter is going to be negative," Nicolas Peter, BMW
finance chief, told reporters during a telephone conference to
report earnings during the first quarter.
The Munich-based auto maker's outlook follows similar comments
by rivals Volkswagen AG and Daimler AG, maker of Mercedes-Benz
cars. Both companies said during calls to report on first-quarter
earnings that the lockdowns in Europe and the U.S. would make April
the hardest month for auto makers and likely push them into a loss
for the second quarter.
BMW said net income fell to 574 million euros ($623.7 million)
in the first quarter from EUR588 million a year ago. Sales rose to
EUR23.25 billion from EUR22.46 billion. New car sales fell 21% to
477,111 vehicles in the first three months of the year, the company
said.
"No one can seriously predict how the economic situation in the
world, and especially in automobile markets, will develop in the
coming months," BMW CEO Oliver Zipse said. "We are preparing
ourselves for a long period of business difficulties."
Write to William Boston at william.boston@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 06, 2020 06:35 ET (10:35 GMT)
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