BMW reports on Q3 findings
Motorcycle markets
Markets for 500 cc plus class motorcycles generally continued to expand during the first nine months of 2015. New registrations increased by 4.8 percent worldwide. In Europe, the motorcycle market as a whole grew by 9.0 percent, helped in particular by a sharp recovery in Southern Europe, including outstanding performances in Spain (+ 25.0 percent) and Italy (+ 12.7 percent). The motorcycles market in Germany grew by 5.9 percent. By contrast, new registration figures in France remained more or less flat, growing by a mere 0.1 percent. In the USA, motorcycle regis- tration figures were 4.7 percent up for the nine-month period.
Significant rise in motorcycles sales volume
The Motorcycles segment sold 33,993 units in the third quarter and therefore significantly more than one year earlier (2014: 29,239 units; + 16.3 percent). For the nine- month period, BMW Motorrad recorded a sales volume of 112,411 units, an increase of 12.2 percent on the previous year (2014: 100,217 units). The figures for both periods therefore attained new record levels.
In Europe, motorcycle sales figures in the first nine months of the year rose by 13.2 percent to 69,081 units (2014: 61,052 units). BMW Motorrad sold 18,825 units (2014: 17,068 units; + 10.3 percent) in Germany. At 10,447 units, the figure for France was also well up on the previous year (2014: 9,165 units; + 14.0 percent). Sales of 9,935 units in Italy between January and September showed a solid growth rate of 6.3 percent (2014: 9,343 units). The USA also finished the reporting period with a solid 9.6 percent increase (13,362 units; 2014: 12,197 units).
Motorcycle production volume raised
A total of 32,220 motorcycles were manufactured during the third quarter (2014: 29,336 units; + 9.8 percent), bringing production volume for the nine-month period to 119,432 units (2014: 104,336 units; + 14.5 percent).
Revenues and earnings significantly up
The dynamic sales volume trend is also reflected in segment revenues, which totaled € 454 million (2014: € 370 million; + 22.7 percent) for the period from July to September 2015. Third-quarter EBIT amounted to € 46 mil- lion (2014: € 27 million; + 70.4 percent), while profit before tax came in at € 45 million (2014: € 26 million; + 73.1 percent).
Nine-month segment revenues grew significantly by 19.9 percent to € 1,643 million (2014: € 1,370 million). EBIT soared to € 273 million (2014: € 146 million; + 87.0 percent) and profit before tax to € 271 million (2014: € 143 million; + 89.5 percent).
Solid increase in workforce
The BMW Group employed 3,079 people in the Motor- cycles segment at 30 September 2015 (2014: 2,896 employees; + 6.3 percent).