BEIJING Automotive Group Co. (BAIC), Daimler AG’s long-term shareholder and partner in China, has agreed not to further increase its stake in the German luxury carmaker beyond the 9.98 percent stake it has held since 2019, Daimler said yesterday. Daimler said it holds a 9.55 percent stake in BAIC’s BAIC Motor and a stake of 2.46 percent in BAIC BluePark. Daimler’s announcement is the first public confirmation of the acquisitions since 2019. “This underlines the successful partnership to continue the long-term success of Mercedes-Benz in China,” Daimler said. BAIC has been Daimler’s main partner in China for years and operates Mercedes-Benz factories in Beijing through Beijing Benz Automotive Co. (BBAC), 49 percent-owned by Stuttgart-based Daimler. The two companies have collaborated in areas such as production, research and development and sales since 2003. “The partnership between BAIC Group and Daimler Group has always been a model of Sino-German cooperation,” BAIC said in a statement yesterday, confirming the stake figure. It said it was confident in Mercedes-Benz’s potential in the future transformation to electro-mobility. China is Daimler’s biggest country business, with more cars sold in the country than in Germany and the United States combined. Last year, BBAC sold a record 611,000 vehicles in the country, up 8 percent from 567,000 in 2019. (SD-Agencies) | 