Geely 2017 net profit soars 108%

Chinese carmaker Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd, whose chairman recently took a $9 billion stake in Germany’s Daimler AG, said on Wednesday its profits more than doubled in 2017, driven by strong domestic sales of popular SUVs. The automaker, based in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, said in a stock exchange filing that its 2017 net profit rose 108 percent to 10.6 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) from 5.1 billion yuan in 2016, slightly beating a forecast of 10 billion yuan from analysts polled by Reuters. The carmaker saw revenue rise 73 percent to 92.8 billion yuan from a year earlier.