Daimler said it would welcome investment from China as it looks to develop its own business and that of its manufacturing operation in the country.
The German automaker recently held a conference in Beijing where several board members presented to potential investors, although the company stressed discussions were still at an early stage and that no percentage stake detail was yet available.
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“We would of course welcome Chinese investors to Daimler as we are interested in a global shareholder basis,” a Daimler spokesman in Germany told just-auto.
“The conference [was] a very concrete first step – we had the entire day in China with presentations from almost all of our board members including Bodo Uebber [CFO]. That goes to show we are ready to showcase ourselves not only to Chinese customers but to Chinese investors.”
Daimler said it had had previous discussions in China but not on the scale of its recent conference. The meeting focused on the Mercedes-Benz division as it “obviously had the most visibility” and that it planned further discussions in the country.
The company added it expected to sell more than 100,000 vehicles to China and noted the country was “a substantial growth market” for its premium brands. Daimler also has its own factory in Beijing where it hopes to sell around 300,000 cars by 2015.
The company also confirmed its intention to to remain a shareholder in pan-European aerospace consortium EADS.
