BMW profits rise on strong European sales

Carmaker BMW has reported a 20% rise in third-quarter profit, helped by strong European sales.

The company said net profits rose to €1.6bn (£1.1bn), up from €1.3bn a year earlier, when it was hit by one-off charges.

The Munich-based carmaker reaffirmed its forecast for increased sales and profit for the full year.

But it warned about the impact of the slowdown in China's economy and of increased competition in the US.

BMW added that it had not been asked to talk to US regulators about emissions testing in the wake of the VW scandal.

BMW said sales for July to September in Europe, the destination of more than 40% of its deliveries, were up 6.9% to 545,062 vehicles.

But it noted that increasing competition in the US, spending on new products and technology, rising personnel costs and slowing demand in China could weigh on its profits for the rest of the year.

"The results are good but the forward perspective looks mediocre," said Frankfurt-based Bankhaus Metzler analyst Juergen Pieper. "The outlook doesn't reveal a particularly large amount of optimism and I don't see great momentum in 2016."

A spokesman for BMW said the company had not been asked to talk to the US regulator that caught rival carmaker Volkswagen cheating emissions tests.

"We have made our vehicles available," the spokesman said when executives were asked on a conference call about BMW's own test results.

"The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has tested them. We have not received any indications one way or the other.

"There have been no talks with the EPA," he added.