40pc rise in net profit seen for SAIC

The mainland's largest carmaker, SAIC Motor - which completed a 28.5 billion yuan (HK$35 billion) acquisition late last year - expects net profit to jump 40 per cent to more than 19.21 billion yuan for 2011.

SAIC, which has joint ventures with Detroit's General Motors and Germany's Volkswagen, attributed the boosted earnings to strong sales and its acquisition of about 20 businesses and assets from its parent company Shanghai Auto last year, SAIC said in a statement to the Shanghai stock exchange yesterday.

Its Shanghai-listed shares closed 2.52 per cent lower at 15.09 yuan, after peaking at 15.58 yuan on the news.

SAIC sold more than four million vehicles last year - slightly surpassing its earlier target to achieve a year-on-year jump of 13 per cent.

More than half of the sales - or a record 2.55 million vehicles, came from its joint venture with General Motors. Coupled with sales of another 2.5 million vehicles in the United States, and roughly four million from the rest of the world, General Motors is likely to top the list of the world's best-selling car manufacturers for 2011.

While the sales of a vehicle produced by a joint venture of SAIC and General Motors could be counted twice by both companies, the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles (OICA) - a global organisation of motor vehicle manufacturers, said sales of a vehicle should be attributed only once to its national group.

That was why SAIC was ranked only the world's 31st largest carmaker in 2010 by the OICA with annual sales of just 346,525 vehicles. The mainland media generally consider SAIC as the first mainland carmaker to become one of the world's top 10 biggest sellers of vehicles, selling 3.58 million vehicles in 2010.

In last year's transaction, SAIC bought a 60.1 per cent stake in Huayu Automotive Systems - a Shanghai-listed firm with interests in more than 20 domestic vehicle parts and components suppliers, a 6 per cent stake in GM Korea, and Shanghai Auto's development-stage new energy vehicle business.

SAIC is expected to announce its full-year earnings on April 5.