Luxury car maker BMW AG said Thursday its first-quarter profit plunged 38 percent as it spent more money on launching new models and because last year's figure included a special gain from an exchangeable bond in Rolls-Royce Group PLC.
The Munich-based company earned €587 million (US$797.62 million) in the three months through March 31, compared with €948 million (US$1288.14 million) a year ago. That was slightly better than the €568 million (US$771.8 million) analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected.
Sales were up 2.9 percent at €11.95 billion (US$16.24 billion), slightly better than the €11.61 (US$15.78) analysts had predicted.
The company's pretax profit dropped 34 percent to €852 million (US$1.15 billion), lower than the €861 forecast.
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