BMW announce a loss in first quarter of 2009

[Everso Biggyballies]

BMW post a (smallish) Loss for Q1

Nothing unusual these days, and indeed anything else is greeted with an OMG.  Ironic that once more the up market brands are seen to be suffering less than the bread and butter makers.  It seems the Fat Cats can still afford their luxuries to an extent, although Mercedes were a little less fortunate with a much more dissapointing result.  Ferrari are the only one posting profits it seems, and record ones at that, as posted elsewhere previously in this section of the forum.

BMW has announced a loss in the first quarter of 2009 of $73.7m, but this was greeted as good news by the stock exchanges which had been expecting worse figures. The company's chief executive officer Norbert Reithofer said at the announcement that there were no signs to suggest that the market will recover until at least next year. The results are a tribute to the financial management of the company, given the 20% drop in sales. The company has dropped its production by a third. This compared favourably to rival Mercedes-Benz which reported a massive loss of $1.86bn in the first quarter of the year.

With the emphasis in Munich being on keeping the cash flow positive, there is constant pressure on the F1 programme to produce good results. The team has done a remarkable job in the last two seasons, but this year things have gone awry. The team intends to introduce a completely new aerodynamic package in Spain - and will stop development of KERS for the next few races, in order to concentrate on getting the cars working better before concentrating too much effort on the new systems.