Taxes eat into profits at Germany's BMW but sales rise

German top-of-the-range carmaker BMW said Tuesday its profits slipped in the third quarter despite rising sales due to higher taxes, but said it was confident about its outlook for the year.
The Munich-based company said it earned a net profit of 1.31 billion euros ($1.64 billion) for the period running from July to September, down 1.2 percent from last year due to the higher tax bill.
Revenue increased 4.5 percent to 19.6 billion euros.
Industry analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires said the results beat expectations, and chief executive Norbert Reithofer said it boded well for the full-year report.
"We remain on course to achieve a significant increase in group profit before tax for the full year and to deliver more than two million vehicles during the twelve-month period," he said in a statement.
The company reported a nearly six-percent rise in unit sales of its BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brands during the third quarter to around 510,000 vehicles.
Sales of BMW brand vehicles alone rose almost seven percent to about 433,000 cars.
BMW defended its position as the world's biggest luxury automaker in terms of sales ahead of German competitors such as Audi and Mercedes-Benz.