Feb. 12 passenger vehicle (PV) sales up 48% YoY — Dongfeng’s (DMG) Feb. PVsales grew 48% YoY and 3% MoM to 146,136 units. PV unit sales growth was drivenby Dongfeng Motor Co. (Nissan), Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen (DFPC) and DongfengHonda (DH) which grew 68% YoY, 26% YoY and 14% YoY respectively. Dongfeng’sown brand business Dongfeng Passenger Vehicle (DFPV) Fengshen unit sales grew145% YoY to 4,532 units. Dongfeng is our preferred exposure to China passengervehicle (PV) makers given its growth potential and undemanding valuation.
Feb. 12 commercial vehicle (CV) sales up 17% YoY — Feb. CV sales grew 17% YoYto 41,634 units, driven by buses & vans, light trucks and heavy duty trucks which grew134%, 22% and 11% YoY respectively. We note that CV division’s contribution toDMG’s operating profit (including interest income but excluding unallocated expenses)reached 13% in 2010.
2M12 PV sales up 10% YoY — 2M12 PV sales achieved 14% of our 2012E PVforecast while 2M12 CV sales achieved 11% of our 2012E CV forecast. We expect PVsales to grow in line or faster than the car market in 2012 driven by contribution fromDH’s three new models (excluding facelifts and new variants), DFPC’s two newmodels, DFPV Fengshen’s two new models and Dongfeng Motor Co.’s one new model.
Dongfeng Honda launches 4th Generation CR-V SUV on 22 Feb. — Newgeneration CR-V SUV 2.0L/2.4L is priced at RMB193,800 to 262,800 and competeswith Tianjin FAW Toyota’s RAV4 SUV, Beijing Hyundai’s ix35 SUV and Shanghai VW’sTiguan SUV.
2011 results preview — DMG is expected to report 2011 results on 27 Mar. Weestimate 2011 net profit to decline 7% YoY to RMB10,217mn, or 6% lower thanThomson consensus.