Germany’s BMW didn’t get to be the number one premium car manufacturer in the world by coming over all touchy-feely, so investors who interpreted the company’s latest upbeat profit prediction as some kind of personality change have got it wrong.
The out of character brashness at an investors meeting last month was explained by new government regulations insisting on clarity, not a breathless urge to be nicer and less opaque to the financial world. And analysts who studied BMW’s projection were also worried by more mundane thoughts about a looming hit to the bottom line from foreign exchange losses.
BMW and German companies generally are famous for their conservative profit forecasts, and are happy to admit not necessarily with a smug grin that they are now happy to report how wrong they were, and that profits last year were much fatter than they modestly anticipated.
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