China's Geely Auto 2009 net profit up 35 percent

GM China sales to hit three million by 2015
Shanghai (AFP) April 12, 2010 - US auto giant General Motors said Monday it expected its annual car sales in China to hit more than three million vehicles in 2015 as the country's car market continues to outpace that in the US. Kevin Wale, GM China Group president and managing director, told a briefing that the carmaker's sales in China would exceed two million units this year, hitting its target four years ahead of schedule, Dow Jones Newswires reported. GM sold a record 1.83 million units in China last year. Wale said underlying demand was so strong in China that sales would remain robust even if the government scaled back incentives for the industry put in place during the financial crisis to boost consumption. China's auto sales overtook those of the United States for the first time last year, making the Asian country the world's biggest auto market. Sales have been driven by government incentives such as lower taxes on cars with engines smaller than 1.6 litres and subsidies for clean-technology vehicles. Most of those measures have been extended into 2010.

by Staff Writers
Hong Kong (AFP) April 12, 2010
Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd said Monday its 2009 net profit rose 35 percent from a year earlier, helped by government incentives aimed at driving up sales of small cars.

Geely -- the Hong Kong-listed unit of Zhejiang Geely Holding, which is buying Volvo Cars -- said full-year net profit rose to 1.18 billion yuan (173 million dollars) in 2009 from 879.1 million yuan in the previous year.

"The increase was partly helped by the government's policies to promote economy sedans but also as a result of the improving product quality and rising customers' satisfaction over Geely's products," the company said.

Revenue more than tripled to 14.1 billion yuan from 4.3 billion yuan.

Gui Shengyue, chief executive of Geely Automobile, said its parent group plans to eventually inject Volvo into the listed company. But he was vague on the timetable.

"Definitely this won't take too long. Maybe three years?" he told a press conference.

Gui also said that the parent group, one of China's largest private car makers, planned to bring Ford Motor's loss-making Swedish brand Volvo back into the black by the end of this year.

"We believe Volvo's business can break even in the fourth quarter of this year," he said, without disclosing further details.

Geely said last month it would spend 2.7 billion US dollars taking over Volvo, ending a decade under the ownership of the US auto giant.

China's auto sales soared to 13.64 million units in 2009 on government policy incentives, outstripping those of the United States for the first time in January last year to make the Asian giant the world's biggest car market.

The measures included slashing taxes on cars with engines smaller than 1.6 litres and subsidising clean-technology vehicles.

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India, China car sales race higher
New Delhi (AFP) April 9, 2010
Car sales in emerging market giants India and China roared ahead in March as newly affluent consumers flocked to showrooms in the buoyant Asian economies, figures showed Friday. March passenger car sales in India leapt 20 percent to 155,600 units from a year ago, while in neighbouring China they soared 63.2 percent to 1.26 million units over the same period. "Underlying strong economic g ... read more

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