CAR and battery maker BYD Co. is awaiting approval from China’s stock regulators for a share offering on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange aimed at raising cash for a major expansion.

    The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) is due to review the application today. BYD did not give any timetable for its initial public offering in the prospectus seen Friday on the CSRC’s Web site.

    MidAmerican Energy, a subsidiary of billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, has a 9.9 percent stake in BYD, which has been investing heavily in expanding its auto production capacity despite a 33 percent drop in its profit last year.

    BYD has not specified the price for its planned listing of 79 million shares, or 3.4 percent of its enlarged capital, in Shenzhen. The company, whose shares are also listed in Hong Kong, had postponed the mainland IPO last year, awaiting a better market environment.

    The company said it plans to use the proceeds for a 2.2 billion yuan (US$338 million) expansion, most of which will go to an autos research, development and production base in the company’s hometown of Shenzhen. Some 400 million yuan will be used to make lithium ion batteries.

    BYD launched China’s first homegrown hybrid vehicle, the F3DM, for the retail market in late 2008.

    But after years of torrid growth that made China the world’s biggest market for new vehicles, auto sales have slowed. BYD reported its vehicle sales rose 10 percent last year from the year before to over 500,000 units.

    But intensifying competition in BYD’s core segment of inexpensive sedans coincided with the loss of key government subsidies for fuel-saving economy vehicles, and the company’s profit margin was halved last year to 5 percent.

    The carmaker had planned to list its shares on the mainland last year. But in July it decided to put the listing plan on hold because of the poor performance of equity markets there.

    In the car industry this year, Chery and Hong Kong-listed Great Wall Motors were seeking A share listings, analysts said. If the listing went ahead it may dilute the shareholding of Buffett. “But it wouldn’t make a palpable impact,” they said.(SD-Agencies)