Gasgoo.com (Shanghai August 4) - Beijing Benz, alongside its parent company BAIC, and Mercedes-Benz China, have announced that the recent SMS messages hinting at a merger of sales networks between the two companies were all false and baseless, the Beijing News reported today. The messages were passed to media outlets from anonymous internal sources from July 31 to August 1.
The messages appeared not long after Daimler and BAIC's agreeing to further develop ties, and brought media attention to the question of the split between Beijing Benz and Mercedes-Benz China. "Currently both sides are in the process of discussing integration, with no clear development [as of yet]," Li Hongpeng, market advertising head at Beijing Benz and one of the persons mentioned in the messages, said. According to the now rebuffed messages, Beijing Benz had completely lost its sales privileges due to poor sales in the first half of the year.
