BMW reported a lower quarterly profit by 74%

BMW's largest luxury car manufacturer in the world, show a 74% drop in profit for the third quarter, especially as the recession has reduced demand for expensive cars.

BMW (Bayerische Motoren Werke) announced that profit fell to 76 million euros, or 12 cents a share, from 296 million euros, or 45 cents a share, in the same period last year. Sales dropped by 6.6% to 11.8 billion euros, BMW also announced.

The first to dispose granted by governments supported the request for cheaper models such as Volkswagen Golf, available to 17,000 euros, without help increase demand for more expensive cars such as BMW 7 Series sedan, with a price of 73,000 euros. BMW has responded to declining sales by decreasing, reducing working hours for one quarter of its employees.

Division auto group made a loss before taxes and taxes of 76 million euros, compared to a profit of 141 million euros in the same period last year.

The loss is in contrast with the result main competitor, Mercedes-Benz division of Daimler Group, which has tripled earnings before taxes and taxes in the third quarter, to 355 million euros.

A return of the market in China has warned the sales decrease in September, when shipments rose for the first time this year, leading the group to end the production decline. BMW car sales in the third quarter decreased 0.4% to 334,000 units.

The group states that sales will decline this year by 10-15%. However, BMW believes that redundancies made last year will enable it to record profits for the full year 2009.

Source: http://www.bmw.com/