(Yicai) Oct. 18 -- BYD’s shares rose after the Chinese electric vehicle and battery giant said it expects net profit to have surged by as much as 142 percent in the first three quarters of the year.

BYD [SHE: 002594] climbed 4.7 percent to close at CNY249.07 (USD34.07) a share in Shenzhen today, and its Hong Kong-listed stock [HKG: 1211] jumped 6.9 percent to HKD257.40 (USD32.89).

Net profit likely soared 120 percent to 142 percent to between CNY20.5 billion and CNY22.5 billion (USD2.8 billion and USD3.1 billion) in the nine months ended Sept. 30 from a year earlier, BYD said in a stock exchange filing late yesterday.

The Shenzhen-based company also said it expects third-quarter profit growth to have slowed from the first half, rising 67 percent to 102 percent year on year to between CNY9.5 billion and CNY11.5 billion (USD1.3 billion and USD1.6 billion).

Despite tougher competition, the new energy vehicle industry continued to grow well in the third quarter, BYD noted, adding that the company’s profit remained buoyant because of its expanding advantages of scale and better control of supply chain costs.

Sales of BYD’s electric cars rose 43 percent to 287,454 units in September from a year earlier. Nine-month sales jumped 76 percent to 2.1 million from the same period of last year, continuing to rank first in China’s NEV market.

In its phone components and assembly business, BYD improved the capacity utilization rate, further optimized business structure, and improved profitability thanks to the increasing number of overseas customers and rapid growth in its new smart product business.

Editor: Futura Costaglione