[I-bank focus]CS downgrades BAIC Motor (01958) to HK$8.33

    Credit Suisse lowered its target price for BAIC Motor Corporation (01958) to HK$8.33 from HK$14, and downgraded its rating to "underperform" from "outperform".
  The research house said the China government announced a detailed timetable to ease ownership limits on foreign auto joint ventures. Specially, ownership limits on new energy vehicle and special vehicle/commercial vehicle/passenger vehicle JVs will be removed from 2018/2020/2022.
  It believes that foreign automakers are likely to change current 50:50 JV structure by (1) establishing new wholly owned new energy vehicle facilities from 2018, (2) raising ownership in existing JVs from 2022, or (3) building new facilities with majority or fully controlled alternative.
  Credit Suisse expects the stock to face immediate de-rating.Its base case is that Mercedes Benz/Hyundai Motor will discontinue the Beijing Benz/ Beijing Hyundai JVs in 2022 via purchasing all the stake in JVs.