BYD plans Shenzhen float
Battery and electric car producer BYD Co plans to list itself on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange next year with a 100 million share issue to raise funds for its new energy vehicle projects, according to a senior company official.
The Hong Kong-listed company, partly owned by US billionaire Warren Buffet, got the necessary shareholder approval for the public float at the annual general meeting held in Shenzhen on Tuesday.
"We expect to complete the entire listing procedure before Sept 7 next year," Wang Jianjun, deputy general manager of BYD Auto Sales Co Ltd, told China Daily.
The company had last year toyed with the idea of a mainland public float of 58.5 million shares on the Shenzhen or Shanghai bourse. The present plan to raise funds is a revival of that proposal which was put on hold after China suspended IPO approvals for nearly a year due to the global financial crisis.
Proceeds from the issue would mainly be used for funding the company's lithium-ion battery production, automobile research and development, expansion of products and parts, as well as a solar battery program, with the rest to be used for working capital needs, said Wang."BYD will focus on the development of electric cars in the next few years and would make further efforts to lower costs and improve the performance of BYD electric vehicles, to popularize it among Chinese consumers," he said....MORE
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See also:
State support, overcoming hurdles key to BYD prospects
