BYD posts first quarterly profit rise in over a year

Beijing, August 28 - Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD reported its first quarterly profit increase in over a year on Friday, driven by a surge in exports that counterbalanced weak domestic sales. As the world's largest EV maker by shipments, BYD has been at the forefront of China's push for overseas expansion, gaining market share in Europe and Southeast Asia as it seeks to reduce its dependence on the increasingly competitive domestic market.

Net profit for the second quarter rose by 29.8 percent year-on-year to 8.2 billion yuan ($1.22 billion), marking the end of four consecutive quarters of decline and reversing a 55.4 percent drop in the previous quarter, according to Reuters calculations based on stock exchange filings. Revenue, however, declined by 3.2 percent to 194.6 billion yuan from a 11.8 percent fall in the first quarter, extending a fourth-quarter streak of quarterly declines.