HONG KONG, Oct 17 Reuters Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD on Tuesday said it expects thirdquarter net profit to as much as double thanks to robust sales and effective cost control.

The Shenzhenbased company forecasts net profit for the July to September period at between 9.55 billion yuan 1.31 billion and 11.55 billion yuan, an increase of 67 to 102 from a year earlier.

Despite the increasingly intensified competition in the automobile industry in the third quarter, the company continued to record profit, BYD said in a filing.

This was down to the company leveraging on its improving brand influence, continuously expanding scale advantage and strong industrial chainwide cost control capability, demonstrating strong resilience, it said.

Net profit in the nine months through September is expected to rise 120142 yearonyear to between 20.50 billion yuan and 22.50 billion yuan, it said, up from a net profit of 9.31 billion yuan in the year ago period.

Citi analyst Jeff Chung said the previous consensus likely failed to capture elements such as BYD39;s much higher return on investment from exports and how it had further achieved cost reductions. He said he remained bullish on BYD into 2024 citing strong export sales and resilience in domestic price cut cycles versus its competitors.

Shares were up 6.89 in Hong Kong trading on Wednesday morning.

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