Shanghai (ZXZC)- China's largest automaker, SAIC Motor, announced net profit slump for the first quarter of 2020, according to a report released on April 30.

SAIC Motor's net profit attributable to shareholders plunged 86.42% from a year ago to RMB1,120,848,401.47 in the Jan.-Mar. period, and its gross revenue registered RMB105,946,701,165.06, a year-on-year decrease of 47.08%, as per the company's latest first-quarter report.

Excluding the impact of certain no-recurring gains and losses, the net profit still nosedived 90.91% over the previous year to RMB691,048,102.4.

As a result of the coronavirus outbreak, SAIC Motor's production and sales declined in the first three months, which led to over 30 % year-on-year decrease in revenue, operating cost, tax & associate charge, marketing costs, investment income and income tax expense.

Besides, a loss claimed on account of fluctuation in the exchange rate grew, and the financial expense skyrocketed 466.32% from the year ago period. The profit from changes in fair value tumbled 277.52% over the previous year on account of the capital market’s impact. Therefore, the net profit eventually represented the sharp drop.

During the sales period, the Shanghai-based automaker saw its production outputs dwindled 56.87% over the prior-year period to 206,241 units, and sold 231,455 vehicles, a year-over-year decrease of 55.71%.

Its three major joint ventures, namely SAIC-GM-Wuling, SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC-GM, all witnessed flagging sales in the first quarter, down by 61.53%, 60.89% and 58.03% respectively.

The automaker sales warned of a substantial change expected to take place in the cumulative net profit for the first half of the year as the pandemic spreading abroad brings uncertainty to the performance and development trend of global economy and automobile market, SAIC Motor said.