BMW says strong global demand for luxury cars pushed its profits sharply higher in the second quarter of this year.
The German car maker said its second quarter net profit more than doubled from the same period a year earlier to €1.8 billion, on sales that were 16.5% higher at almost €17.9 billion.
'We expect the business environment to remain favourable during the second half of 2011,' the company said in a statement.
The group's operating profit soared 83% to €2.86 billion. Both profit figures were well ahead of analysts' forecasts.
'We expect to achieve a significantly higher group profit before tax for the full year 2011 compared to 2010, assuming economic and political conditions remain stable and that the global economy continues to grow,' BMW said.
In the second quarter, the BMW group, which also owns the Mini and Rolls-Royce brands, sold a record 450,608 vehicles, an annual increase of 18.5%. For the first six months of the year, sales jumped almost 20% to 833,366. BMW issued a new full-year target last month of more than 1.6 million sales for 2011.
BMW dealers have been delivering more cars worldwide, but especially in Chine and the rest of Asia, now the industry's global growth engine.
German rivals Daimler, which owns Mercedes, and Volkswagen, which owns Audi, both published solid quarterly results last week as well and raised their annual forecasts.
