Beijing Auto to buy mid- to high-end American or European manufacturer

China’s Beijing Automotive (BAIC) has announced it is looking to purchase a mid- to high-end automaker from Europe or the United States in the near future. A spokesman for BAIC revealed the company has several candidates in mind but refused to go into more precise details.

The company explained purchasing a foreign automaker will enable it to increase its international presence in record time because it won’t have to build a brand image from the ground up. Owned by the Chinese government, BAIC is one of the largest automakers in China but its compete lack of image in Europe and in the United States would greatly prevent it from thriving in those markets.

Purchasing an existing automaker would also save BAIC a considerable amount of money in the long run because the purchase will likely include at least one factory.

“We want to acquire such mid-sized brands [...] while the economy is sluggish so we can use their facilities as a production base to expand there,” explained president Dong Haiyang in an interview last year.

BAIC did not say when it is hoping to take over another automaker, though sources close to the matter indicate the purchase will take place in the coming years.

BAIC already has several ties to the auto industry in the United States and in Europe. It purchased the bulk of the technology that underpins the last-gen Saab 9-3 and 9-5 sedans in June of 2009 from General Motors, and it currently sells a modestly updated version of the 9-5 across China.

The company operates a lucrative joint-venture with Mercedez-Benz parent company Daimler called Beijing Benz. The two formed a sub-brand called Denza that will unveil its first car, an electric sedan based on the last-gen Mercedes B-Class, later this month at the Beijing Motor Show.