Brilliance
BMW allowed to take majority stake in Shenyang car factory
A man works at the Tiexi plant of BMW Brilliance Automotive (BBA). BMW has taken over the majority of the joint venture with the Chinese carmaker Brilliance in China. Photo: Pan Yulong/XinHua/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
As early as 2018, BMW and the Chinese carmaker Brilliance had signed a contract for the majority takeover for the joint plant in Shenyang. Now the authorities in China have agreed.
BMW has taken over the majority of the joint venture with the Chinese carmaker Brilliance in China.
After approval by the authorities in the People’s Republic, the contract agreed in 2018 came into force on Friday, BMW announced in Munich. At the same time, the joint venture agreement will be extended until 2040.
Shenyang is the largest BMW plant next to Spartanburg in the USA and Dingolfing in Lower Bavaria. BMW now holds 75 percent and its partner Brilliance China Automotive the remaining 25 percent of the shares in the BBA joint venture. BMW announced that the purchase price of 3.7 billion euros would be transferred in February. CEO Oliver Zipse said: “Our success story in the world’s largest automotive market will only go hand in hand with the growth and further development of our joint venture BBA.”
Last year, BMW sold 846,000 cars in China. In the BBA joint factory, 23,000 employees built more than 700,000 BMW cars for the Chinese market and for export. “Due to the high demand, BBA is increasing production capacity in Shenyang again this year.” The plant in the Dadong district will be extensively expanded, and a completely new plant will be built in the Tiexi district. BMW will also produce other all-electric models in China.
BMW CFO Nicolas Peter said the joint venture founded in Shenyang in 2003 had “significantly contributed to the positioning of the BMW brand as a leading premium brand in China”. In the past decade, BBA has invested more than 10 billion euros in China. From Friday, BBA will be fully consolidated in the consolidated financial statements of BMW AG.