Great Wall Motor mulling domestic A-share IPO

Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor Co (2333.HK) is considering resurrecting plans for an domestic A-share initial public offering as the country's stock and auto markets have rebounded strongly, company executives said on Tuesday.

"We are revisiting the possibility of an A-share listing but no final decision has been made yet," said a company executive with direct knowledge of the matter.

Another senior executive confirmed that a team had been set up to consider whether or not to proceed with a Shanghai IPO, which was put on hold last year due in part to a steep slump in mainland China's stock markets.

Great Wall Motor, the largest Chinese sport utility vehicle (SUV) maker without a foreign partner, unveiled a plan in October 2007 to issue up to 121.7 million A shares in Shanghai.

The offering would be valued at as much as HK$1.07 billion ($138.1 million) based on the value of the company's Hong Kong-listed shares on Tuesday, although mainland shares typically trade at a hefty premium to their Hong Kong counterparts.

The executives did not say how much the offering might aim to raise, although one said it could be different from the previous plan.

Great Wall Motor, which unlike most big Chinese automakers is not state-owned, expects to double its vehicle sales this year, exceeding a previous 70 percent growth target, after explosive growth in China's auto market in the first half of the year, the second company executive said.

Great Wall Motor, which sold 91,000 vehicles from January to June, had targeted sales of 200,000 units for the full year.

"We think we can do better than that now. We hope we can exceed our target and double our sales for 2009," he said.

Great Wall is aiming for a 50 percent increase in vehicle sales for 2010 despite challenges facing its vehicle exports, which plunged 48 percent to fewer than 20,000 units in the first six months of this year, he added.

He expected the decline to extend into the first half of 2010 as a sharp industry downturn continues to dent automobile demand overseas.

The executives declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issues.