BMW on Friday said it would post a “significant” 2008 profit as the world’s largest premium carmaker sought to soothe nervous investors amid the rapid downturn in the global car industry.

The German carmaker had entirely abandoned its profit target in November in the wake of a demand meltdown for premium cars. It merely promised at the time that its profit before tax would remain positive.

BMW on Friday did not disclose its full-year profit, but it said the groups’ revenue had fallen 5 per cent to €53.2bn ($68.7bn).

The news came as car executives were bracing themselves for what could be the worst quarter for the industry in decades, with carmakers potentially facing losses in the first three months of the year.

Sales figures for January, revealed by some German carmakers Friday, already laid bare a bleak picture with car sales plunging up to almost a third.

BMW posted a 24.2 per cent drop in sales, while its major rival Daimler sold 31 per cent less cars than in the year before. Daimler’s sales were dragged down by its high-volume E-Class sedan, where customers are bracing themselves for a forthcoming model change in March.

Even German premium carmaker Audi, which is part of the Volkswagen group and looked fairly resilient until the end of 2008, got badly hit in the first month of the year. Sales at Audi dropped 28.6 per cent.

Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen’s chief executive, recently told the FT he estimated that global car industry sales had dropped 25 per cent in January, while the VW brand sold about 15 per cent less cars.

BMW on Friday warned that in the fourth quarter of 2008 the market situation had already deteriorated. “Apart from the great reticence to purchase new vehicles, there were also no signs of stabilisation on the used car markets and consequently of residual values for vehicles coming out of leases,” the company said.

The carmaker had been hit particularly hard in its leasing business last year, amid collapsing residual values and higher refinancing costs. The carmaker’s financing arm, once seen as a cash cow for the group, even posted a slight loss in the third quarter. Friedrich Eichiner, BMW’s chief financial officer, in the past had not ruled out further charges in the last quarter of the year.

In its automotive business, which includes the BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brands, the group posted a revenue drop of more than 9 per cent in 2008. This blow was cushioned by the troubled financial services sector, which – in spite of the loss in the third quarter – recorded a revenue increase of almost 13 per cent.