BMW says profits up in Q2

German top-of-the-range carmaker BMW said Tuesday that profits rose in the second quarter of 2014 on the back of increased demand for its vehicles worldwide. BMW said in a statement that its bottom-line net profit rose by 27.2 per cent to 1.771 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in the period from April to June. Underlying or operating profit was up 26 per cent at 2.603 billion euros on a 1.8-per cent increase in revenues to 19.905 billion euros. Unit sales rose by 5.3 per cent to 533,187. Following the ‘strong’ first-half performance, BMW said it would stick to its sales volume and earnings forecast for the full year 2014. Such significant sales growth would also have a positive impact on pre-tax profit, the CEO said. ‘We are aiming for a group profit before tax figure, which will be significantly higher than in the previous year,’ he said. In the second half of the year, however, the pace at which earnings increase would be influenced by high levels of expenditure for new technologies, Reithofer cautioned, according to AFP.