BMW also reaffirmed its forecasts for the full year, which include record sales volumes for all three brands.
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - BMW <BMWG.DE>, the world's largest premium carmaker, said several hundred permanent staff had agreed to redundancy packages as it seeks to cut thousands of jobs to improve profitability.
BMW also reaffirmed its forecasts for the full year, which include record sales volumes for all three brands.
"Excluding the exceptional gain on the Rolls-Royce exchangeable bond recognized in 2007, we are aiming to achieve higher pre-tax group earnings in 2008 than in 2007," Chief Executive Norbert Reithofer said in a statement ahead of the company's annual shareholder meeting on Thursday.
The company did not give an exact number of permanent employees who had agreed to redundancy packages.
!ADVERTISEMENT!BMW is aiming to cut 8,100 jobs worldwide, including 3,100 permanent staff as it seeks to improve profitability. Voluntary redundancies are key as the carmaker has a labor accord stopping it laying off German employees through the end of 2013.
The cuts are intended to generate annual savings of 500 million euros ($766.5 million) starting in 2009. BMW wants to reduce its initially budgeted costs by 6 billion euros by 2012.
Reithofer also repeated on Thursday his pledge to increase the level of shareholders' participation in the success of BMW.
"We see the higher dividend for the financial year 2007 as being the first step," he said. BMW planned to distribute 694 million euros for 2007, with the dividend up 51 percent at 1.06 euros for each common share.
BMW added it had not decided whether to buy back up to 10 percent of its share capital, a step it proposed to shareholders.
Shares in BMW were 0.7 percent lower at 37.43 euros by 5:07 a.m. EDT (0907 GMT), similar to the 0.6 percent fall on the German benchmark DAX index <.GDAXI>.
(Reporting by James Regan; editing by Sue Thomas)
