BMW to increase stake in Brilliance joint venture

German carmaker will be first international player to hold a controlling share in local venture

BMW AG is to make history in China's automotive industry, becoming the first international carmaker to hold a majority stake in a joint venture in the country, according to a State Council announcement on its website last week.

While it did not reveal specific details, German business magazine Manager Magazin said BMW will increase its stake in BMW Brilliance Automotive to at least 75 percent from its current 50 percent holding.

Bloomberg reported a new ownership structure will be unveiled soon, citing a person familiar with the plan.

"We cannot comment in detail on the state of our ongoing discussions with our partner Brilliance at this point in time," said BMW in a statement to China Daily.

But, the carmaker said that it "welcomes China's commitment to further market opening and reforms by lifting the foreign shareholding limit for automotive joint ventures for passenger vehicles from 2022".

The joint venture BMW Brilliance was established in 2003. It has localized six BMW models in the country and produces the majority of BMWs sold in China.

A long-term deal BMW signed with Brilliance last week plans to expand the joint venture's annual production capacity.

"As previously stated, the BMW Group and Brilliance Group are developing the highly successful BMW Brilliance Automotive joint venture in China to further improve the strategic positioning of both shareholders in the market," said BMW.

However, the prices of Brilliance China's shares listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange tumbled 12.5 percent Thursday following the news of BMW's plan to raise its equity in the joint venture.

They dipped another 2.8 percent on Friday, as the joint venture with BMW has been the most important source of its revenue and profit.

Another factor that reportedly drove down Brilliance's stock prices is BMW inking a deal last week to establish a 50-50 joint venture with Great Wall Motor.

The deal covers producing MINI-branded electric cars as well as gasoline cars.

The new joint venture will receive a total investment of 5.1 billion yuan ($761 million) and will have an annual production capacity of 160,000 vehicles when completed.

Investment firm Jefferies Hong Kong Ltd said that as China plans to loosen its joint venture policies, the situation will favor local companies that are able to support global carmakers in sales and marketing, operation management and government relations.

"As we argued before, future joint venture structures will be more based on business interest, with protective joint venture policies removed," said Jefferies in a report.

"As we have seen in the latest Great Wall-BMW case, Great Wall was chosen due to its 'proven track-record in efficient industrialization', as quoted from BMW's press release," according to the report.

BMW's move to scale up its equity in BMW Brilliance is sign of its commitment to the Chinese market, said financial news website jrj.com in a report.

With an increased equity stake, BMW will be more willing to increase investment in the joint venture and introduce more models, it said.

The report said it will be easier for Great Wall Motor to accept that BMW will not build a sales network with it but will sell electric MINIs via BMW Brilliance's network.