Great Wall may hold Shanghai share sale in 3 yrs

Great Wall Motor Co., China's largest maker of pick-up trucks, may sell shares in Shanghai within three years to help boost its profile.

"If we can return to the A-share market, it will help our domestic sales," Deputy General Manager Bai Xuefei told reporters in Hong Kong today. He didn't elaborate further on the share sale plan.

In Hong Kong trading, the automaker dropped the most in eight months after reporting a 36 percent decline in first-half net income. Profit fell after costs from the introduction of new passenger cars and lower exports eroded gains from a doubling of domestic vehicle sales.

The company expects to sell as many as 190,000 vehicles this year, Bai said. It will increase production capacity to 250,000 vehicles annually by the end of the year, he added.

Great Wall fell 10 percent to HK$7.57 at the close of trading in Hong Kong. First-half profit dropped to 262 million yuan ($38 million), the automaker said late yesterday.

The company's stock has more than doubled this year compared with a 42 percent gain for the benchmark Hang Seng Index. China's overall domestic passenger-vehicle sales rose 26 percent in the first half as government subsidies and tax cuts helped revive demand.