Barclays Buys BYD Shares

The third largest UK-based bank and the current sponsor of the British Premier League, Barclays, recently purchased 32.33 million shares of BYD Co. for 78.15 HKD (10 US dollars) per share. As a result, the bank is now holding 5.41 percent of BYD's circulating shares in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, People's Daily reported today.

Wondering what's the reason for such a move? Analysts believe BYD's significant efforts in the green sector are attracting investors and are raising their expectations when it comes to sales in both China and overseas markets.

BYD is currently the largest rechargeable battery maker in China and is directing its efforts towards green cars. The company is willing to become the world's number one manufacturer by 2025, according to company officials.

"We have plenty of time to become China's top carmaker by 2015 with a complete and mature product line-up. I am sure we can achieve the target earlier than scheduled," Wang Jianjun, deputy general manager of BYD Auto Sales Co told the China Daily. "BYD was also making efforts to overtake Toyota to become the world's No 1 carmaker in 2025, with annual sales of over 10 million cars expected by that time," Wang said.

Unfortunately for BYD, the company is still far from reaching this apparently unrealistic target. It sold a total of 100 electric cars in eight months, in spite of the company's enthusiastic task to sell between 3,000 and 4,000 units in 2009. BYD sold 246,881 cars in the first eight months of the year and aims to sell approximately 400,000 cars this year. Toyota, who is currently the world's number 1 automaker, sold a total of 9 million cars in 2008.