The carmaker bmw has benefited from the higher demand and the increased prices in 2021 and made more profit than ever before. The bottom line at the Munich company, according to information from Thursday, was almost 12.5 billion euros in the till, more than three times as much as a year ago. Analysts polled by Refinitiv weren’t expecting that much profit. BMW has pushed ahead with the transformation and is operationally successful, said CFO Nicolas Peter (59). “We are in a good position and are confident about the future.”
BMW benefited from the settlement of the legal dispute with the EU: the Munich company had to pay a fine of around one billion euros less than initially expected in the process of agreeing on the size of tanks for the fuel additive “AdBlue”.
This drives up prices because far fewer discounts have to be given on new cars. Cars are also traded more expensively on the used car market. At 10.3 percent, the operating profit margin in the auto business – a key figure for the company – was at the upper end of the self-imposed range.
The dividend is now to be increased to EUR 5.80 per share, for 2020 BMW had paid EUR 1.90 per share. In addition, the general meeting should decide on a share buyback.