(Yicai Global) Sept. 10 -- SAIC Motor intends to spend as much as CNY3 billion (USD465 million) over a 12-month period to repurchase some of its shares in order to roll out an employee stock ownership scheme so as to retain talent, the Chinese car giant said yesterday.

SAIC will repurchase between 51.8 million and 104 million shares, equivalent to between 0.44 percent and 0.89 percent of its total stock, at a maximum price of CNY28.91 (USD4.48) apiece, the Shanghai-based company said. The firm’s shares [SHA: 600104] were trading at CNY21.07 (USD3.27) at 2 p.m. China time today.

SAIC has become the latest carmaker to introduce an equity incentive program. Geely Automobile said earlier this month that it is offering HKD4.5 billion (USD578.7 million) worth of shares to its staff. Some 10,000 employees will be able to buy the stock for next to nothing. In May, Great Wall Motors said it will offer 8,878 employees 440 million shares, currently worth CNY22.4 billion (USD3.5 billion), at about two-thirds of the market price.

SAIC’s board of directors, senior management and major shareholders do not have plans to reduce their holdings over the repurchase period, the company said. Net assets attributable to shareholders were almost CNY276 billion (USD42.8 billion) as of June 30. The buyback scheme will amount to under 1 percent of this and will not affect the firm’s daily operations, it added.

SAIC logged a 58 percent leap in net profit in the first half from the same period last year to CNY13.3 billion (USD2 billion), according to its latest earnings report. Revenue was up 29 percent to CNY366.1 billion (USD56.7 billion).

Editor: Kim Taylor