Shanghai (ZXZC)- SAIC Motor's 2019 net profit attributable to shareholders of the public company is projected to reach roughly RMB25.6 billion, tumbling 28.9% compared with 2018, the automaker announced on January 13.

Excluding the impact of certain no-recurring gains and losses, the annual net profit plunged 34% year on year to approximately RMB21.4 billion.
The sales decrease should be partially blamed for the profit downturn, according to SAIC’s announcement. Last year, the automaker saw its full-year auto sales slide 11.54% over the year-ago period to 6,237,950 units. Before gaining a growth in December, the company had been suffering year-on-year sales drop for 15 consecutive months.

The waning performance of joint ventures was the major reason leading to the overall decrease. In 2019, SAIC Volkswagen, SAIC-GM-Wuling and SAIC-GM were hit by 3.07%, 19.42% and 18.78% sales decline respectively.

（Photo source: MG)

Nonetheless, it would be remiss not to mention the bright spots in SAIC's NEV and overseas performance. The latest sales report showed that the automaker's NEV annual sales hit a record high of over 180,000 units (+30%), of which more than 14,000 units were sold outside China. Additionally, it sold roughly 350,000 complete vehicles in foreign markets, a significant growth of 26.5% compared with 2018. Of that, the sales of MG-branded cars zoomed up 90% to 139,000 units.

Besides, other factors that should account for the profit drop include the intensified imbalance between supply and demand resulting from the transition from the China Ⅴ to the Ⅵ emission standard, and the NEV subsidy phase-out, said SAIC Motor.