THE ECONOMIC crisis threatening to topple global carmakers rocked two of Europe’s biggest yesterday as BMW swung to a fourth-quarter operating loss and Volkswagen warned of worse ahead.

Shares in BMW, the world’s largest premium carmaker, sank more than 11 per cent at one point, before rallying. The fourth-quarter operating loss dragged full-year net profit down to €330 million, far below expectations, and forced BMW to cut its dividend to 30 cent per share.

VW warned it would likely post a loss in the seasonally weak first quarter and only saw a “small ray of hope” for an improvement in the second.

Management reaffirmed the company would not be able to maintain the record annual vehicle sales, revenue and earnings posted in 2008. “A difficult 2009 lies ahead of us – one of the most difficult years in our company’s history,” chief executive Martin Winterkorn said.

VW promised it would stay in the black on an annual basis and expected not to burn cash this year thanks in part to releasing a large part of the €2.3 billion in funds tied up in working capital – essentially inventories of built cars that have yet to be sold.

VW and BMW reaffirmed they would not take a stake in General Motors’ German unit, Opel, ahead of a meeting today between the US parent and European officials to discuss the fate of the struggling carmaker’s European assets.

VW production boss Jochem Heizmann said it was not interested in buying either the Bochum or Eisenach plants from Opel, while Mr Winterkorn added that he did not see either GM’s Swedish brand Saab or Ford’s Volvo as a possible partner.

GM Europe submitted a rescue plan for Opel last month to partly spin it off along with UK brand Vauxhall, but needs €3.3 billion in aid from European governments.

Meanwhile, a Saab spokesman said that Swedish investors had shown interest in the unit. Separately, Volvo agreed with unions to lower staff costs in a deal which was likely to mean the avoidance of further job cuts.