Brilliance China H1 net profits soar 54.3% year on year

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd. (Brilliance China) said in its semi-annual report that the interim profits attributable to shareholders soared 54.3% year on year to RMB 3.566 billion in the first half of 2018.

As one of Brilliance Auto Group's publicly-listed subsidiaries, Brilliance China mainly presides over the complete vehicle businesses, including BMW Brilliance (a JV with BMW Group), Renault Brilliance Jinbei (a JV with Groupe Renault) as well as Brilliance-BEA Auto Finance, a professional automotive finance company owned by Brilliance Auto Group.

According to the midterm report, the company's unaudited JV profits reached RMB 3.677 billion for the first half of the year, surging 37.9% compared with the same period one year ago. The company attributed the profit growth to the profit increase made by BMW Brilliance, which is 50% indirectly owned by Brilliance China.

The report showed that BMW Brilliance's cumulative sales climbed 13.4% over a year ago to around 209,700 units for the first six months. The sales of major models, the locally-produced BMW 1 Series, 3 Series, 5 Series and X1 all saw year-on-year growth to different degrees. Moreover, the all-new China-made BMW X3 saw its sales reach 2,261 units in June after it went on sale in the same month.

However, the Sino-French JV Renault Brilliance Jinbei fails to attain a positive sales growth. By the end of June, the JV delivered a total of 22,739 light buses and MPVs, a year-on-year slump of 32.4%.

On July 9, BMW Group and Brilliance Auto signed a long-term framework agreement to further expand their JV BMW Brilliance. According to the agreement, the JV will increase the capacity of its two local production facilities Tiexi and Dadong in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, to a total of 520,000 BMW branded vehicles in 2019. Furthermore, BMW's first all-electric core model of the BMW brand, the iX3 will be produced by BMW Brilliance and is planned for export to markets outside of China.