BMW, the world's leading luxury car maker by sales, on Thursday reported a sharp drop in 2009 profit but said deliveries would pick-up this year.

The German group said profit fell 36.5 percent to 210 million euros (287 million dollars) as chairman Norbert Reithofer updated provisional figures.

A company statement added however that sales were expected to increase this year by 50,000 vehicles to 1.3 million.

Although the global economic crisis sent unit sales plunging by 12.6 percent last year, BMW fared better than rival Daimler, since the maker of Mercedes Benz cars posted a 2009 loss of 2.6 billion euros.

"Daimler braked too late. BMW had already taken measures to deal with the crisis in 2008," German auto expert Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer told AFP.

Munich-based BMW said it had "performed well in 2009 despite difficult market conditions worldwide."

It posted a pretax profit of 413 million euros and quoted Reithofer as adding: "We are prudently optimistic for the current year."

BMW said its 2009 dividend would remain unchanged at 30 euro cents per ordinary share.

They initially leapt by three percent on the Frankfurt stock exchange on the news but then fell back to show a gain of 1.10 percent to 32.62 euros in midday trading, while the DAX index of German blue-chips was slightly lower overall.

In January, BMW had already said sales were expected to have slipped last year by 4.7 percent to 50.68 billion euros.

Final results are to be published on March 17.

BMW suffered in 2009 as auto scrapping premiums worldwide pushed buyers towards smaller, cheaper models and its crucial US market hit a wall.

Sales of higher end automobiles are poised to rebound this year however, and "BMW is well placed and can react in a flexible manner," Dudenhoeffer said.

The company is placing hopes in a new 5-Series sedan due to hit showrooms later this month, and expects stronger results in emerging markets like China.

Auto motor und sport, a specialist German magazine, said demand for the new 5-Series is so strong the company's plant in Dingolfing, southeastern Germany, would run at full capacity for at least the next three months and is bringing in workers from other factories.

The magazine quoted BMW sales director Ian Roberson as saying he hoped sales would beat those of the previous model and that BMW would deliver significantly more cars in China and the United States than last year.

BMW is nonetheless now keeping an eye on Audi, as Volkswagen's rival division relentlessly gnaws away at the leader's advance.