BMW Group has reported strong financial results for 2013 with earnings before interest and taxes up 4.3% to EUR1.95bn.
Group deliveries to customers in 2013 grew 6.4% to 1,963,798 units.
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The company forecast further sales volume growth in 2014 and said its board will propose a higher dividend.
“We forecast further sales volume growth in the current year which will again bring us a new all-time high. In doing so, we should exceed the threshold of two million vehicles,” said Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Norbert Reithofer.
For the full year 2013, the company’s profit after tax increased 9.5 percent to 1.31 billion euros, or $1.82 billion from 1.19 billion euros in the previous year.
The BMW 3 Series remained a major source of growth in 2013, with sales of the model rising by 23% to 500,332 units (2012: 406,752 units).
The BMW Group recorded sales volume growth on nearly all continents in the past year. “The BMW Group’s sales strategy is geared towards achieving an evenly balanced distribution of worldwide sales across the three main regions of the world to avoid overdependence on any single market,” said Reithofer.
At 859,546 units, sales in Europe – the BMW Group’s largest sales region – were almost at their previous year’s level, despite what BMW admitted were challenging business conditions in some countries (BMW sales -0.7%).
For the first time, the number of vehicles sold by the BMW Group in Asia exceeded the half-million mark. Sales in the region grew by 17.3% to 578,678 units, helped by a 19.7% rise on the Chinese mainland to 391,713 units.
