SAIC Motor Corp., seeking to ease investor fears about the negative impact on its operations from the latest wave of coronavirus outbreaks, plans to spend 1.6 billion yuan ($240 million) to 3.2 billion yuan to buy back shares on the Shanghai stock exchange.
The stock repurchase plan, to be carried out over the next five months, is intended to boost investors’ confidence in the company’s business outlook and long-term value, the state-owned automaker said Wednesday.
SAIC and its joint ventures with General Motors and Volkswagen Group all operate major assembly plants in Shanghai — the epicenter of the latest coronavirus outbreak.
In March, production at SAIC and its partnerships with GM and VW Group dropped 16 percent to 419,721 cars and light trucks, while overall sales fell 10 percent to 443,045.
Shanghai officials have yet to lift a citywide lockdown that began in late March.
SAIC hasn’t disclosed April production and sales figures, but executives acknowledged at an investor conference this week that the company’s operations were hit “somewhat harder” by the coronavirus outbreak in April than in March.
