First-half profit of China's Geely, owners of Volvo, drops 43% on Covid-19 hit

China's Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd said on Monday first-half net profit fell 43%, as the coronavirus outbreak slammed the brakes on auto sales in the world's biggest market.

Geely, China's highest-profile automaker globally due to the group's investments in Volvo Cars and Daimler AG, posted January-June profit of 2.3 billion yuan ($331.37 million), versus 4.01 billion yuan in the same period a year prior.

Revenue fell 23% to 36.82 billion yuan, Geely said. The result compared with the 36.89 billion yuan average of three analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv.

Geely maintained its annual sales target of 1.4 million vehicles set in January, shortly after the coronavirus outbreak was first reported in China at the end of 2019. Sales last year reached 1.36 million vehicles.

It sold 530,446 vehicles in January-June, around 19% lower than its total over the same period last year.

($1 = 6.9409 Chinese yuan renminbi)