BYD to buyback $43 million of its own stock

Chinese car maker BYD has announced plans to buy 200 million yuan of its own shares in an attempt to halt its tumbling stock price.

The buyback, which was proposed by BYD’s chairman and president Wang Chuanfu and translates to around $43 million Australian dollars, will be used to sure up investor confidence and stabilise BYD’s valuation.

Despite soaring sales that could soon see BYD overtake Tesla as the world’s best-selling EV brand, BYD’s stock price is down 22 percent year-to-date.

Bloomberg reports BYD shares fell 17 percent in November alone.

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The BYD Dolphin (left) and MG 4 (right) are fresh, low-cost entrants to the Aussie EV market

The weak performance reflects a broader trend on China’s A-share market so far in 2022, with the Shanghai Composite Index down around five perfect year-to-date.

BYD has also dropped prices of its models to compete with fresh rivals like Huawei in China’s growing EV market.

Early signs are that BYDs buyback plan is already working, with the company’s shares climbing by 2.6 percent on Wednesday.

BYD sales also continue to grow, with the brand a clear market leader in China. BYD sold 301,000 vehicles in China last month, with that number including 170,150 full electric models. Tesla sold 82,432 EVs in China over the same period.

BYD is also enjoying skyrocketing growth in Australia and has delivered 10,975 cars to the end of November. It still has a way to catch Tesla Down Under, however, which has notched up 43,924 sales year-to-date.