BYD Shares Gain 5% In U.S. After Surge In 1st Quarter Profit

U.S.-traded shares in BYD, China’s biggest maker of electric vehicles, rose by 5.4% today after the company posted a 410% bulge in first quarter profit compared with a year earlier.

Net profit in the three months of the year soared to 4.13 billion yuan or nearly $600 million versus 808 million yuan during the first three months of 2022. Sales increased by nearly 80% to 120.2 billion yuan from 66.8 billion yuan a year earlier as local buyers flocked to EVs in China, the world’s largest auto market. BYD is also making a large push to expand overseas.

Approximately 6% owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, BYD has emerged to rival Tesla as world’s largest EV maker. BYD’s current market capitalization of $100 billion in Hong Kong – its primary listing — exceeds GM and Ford combined. The Shenzhen-headquartered company sold 552,076 new energy vehicles in the first quarter, a surge of nearly 93% from a year earlier.

EVs were a focus at this month’s Auto Shanghai – the country’s most important auto show since the end of its “zero-Covid” policies in December. Among suppliers, BYD generated buzz with a new Seagull model priced at approximately $11,000 — one of the most affordable.

BYD’s overall business is more diversified than its EV rivals – it also makes handset components, semiconductors and photovoltaics. BYD ranked No. 579 on the Forbes Global 2000 ranking of the world’s top publicly traded companies in 2022.

BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu holds a fortune worth $20 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List today. BYD board member Lu Xiangyang, a cousin of Wang who also leads investment firm Youngy Investment Holding, is worth $13.9 billion, and BYD director Xia Zuoquan, who leads investment firm Zhengyuan Capital, is worth $3.8 billion. China has the largest number of billionaires in the world after the United States.

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@rflannerychina