Auto company to double revenue

Brilliance Auto, parent of Brilliance China Automotive Holdings, said yesterday it would double its annual revenue by 2010, following an increase in vehicle sales.
   
Brilliance Auto's sales rose 55 percent to 22.1 billion yuan (US$2.91 billion) in the first half, after selling more than 146,000 vehicles, up 59 percent from a year earlier, it said in a statement in the Shanghai Securities News.
   
The mid-sized Chinese automaker is planning to increase its turnover to 80 billion yuan annually by 2010, when it expects to sell 500,000 vehicles. That compares with an estimated 40 billion yuan in turnover and 300,000 vehicle sales for 2007, it said.
   
The Chinese automaker, which formed a joint venture in China with BMW, the world's largest premium carmaker, secured a deal last year to sell 158,000 sedans in Europe over the next five years, including the BS6 mid-range model.