FRANKFURT, July 13 (Reuters) - German carmaker BMW reiterated its belief that China will remain an important market, even as its Chinese joint-venture partner Brilliance China Automotive warned about a 40 percent decrease in profit in the first half of 2015.
Brilliance on Monday said it expected the decrease in profit attributed to equity holders, to be caused mainly by a drop in the results of BMW Brilliance Automotive.
"The decrease in BMW Brilliance's profit was caused by the higher selling costs incurred during the first six months of 2015 as a result of the slowdown in the growth of the Chinese economy and the automotive industry," Brilliance said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Brilliance China Automotive's condensed consolidated income in the first-half of 2014 was 3,627,930,000 Renminbi ($584 million).
In January, BMW agreed to pay 5.1 billion yuan to auto dealers in China who pressured the world's top luxury carmaker to share the cost of overstocked showrooms.
BMW has been hit by a slowing Chinese economy where cut-throat competition leaves its ageing product range increasingly exposed. Its 7-series limousine for instance, on the market in China since 2009, competes with a new version of the Mercedes S-Class, which was launched in late 2013. ($1 = 6.2081 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Edward Taylor and Jan Schwartz; Editing by Arno Schuetze)