BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - Guangzhou Automobile Group Co Ltd, China's sixth largest carmaker and the joint venture partner of Honda Motor and Toyota, plans to go public this year, a company official at the Chinese auto maker said.
The official, who declined to give his name, told XFN-Asia that the company has already started the relevant procedures and submitted its listing plan to regulators for approval.
He did not provide more details.
Citing company general manager Zeng Qinghong, the Beijing Times reported earlier this week that Guangzhou Auto hopes to raise 600-800 mln usd via the planned IPO.
The newspaper said that Guangzhou Auto has set a sales target of 500,000 vehicle units or over 100 bln yuan in sales revenue for this year, including Guangzhou Honda's targeted sales of 260,000 units and Guangzhou Toyota's 150,000 units.
The Chinese automaker sold 352,300 units in 2006, up 42.71 pct from a year earlier, according to statistics released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).
Guangzhou Auto also plans to unveil a prototype of an internally-developed brand sedan by the end of the year, for launch by 2010.
The company has a Hong Kong-listed unit -- Denway Motors.
(1 usd = 7.74 yuan)