By Bingyan Wang


Shares of Tesla battery supplier Contemporary Amperex Technology are higher after the company said its 2022 net profit is expected to rise over 80%, buoyed by growing demand from both domestic and foreign markets.

The Shenzhen-listed shares of the world largest battery maker were up as much as 4.4% in early trading Friday, outperforming the Shenzhen Composite Index's 0.4% gain.

The company, in a stock exchange filing after the market closed Thursday, said it expects its 2022 net profit to increase to between 29.10 billion yuan ($4.32 billion) and CNY31.50 billion. That would mean 2022 net profit rose between 83% and 98%.

"The new energy industry at home and abroad is developing rapidly, and the market of power battery and energy storage industry continues to grow" amid the global transition to clean energy, CATL said in the filing.

CATL has been accelerating its global expansion. In August last year, the company said it plans to invest up to $7.1 billion to build a plant in Hungary, which would be its second factory in Europe. It also signed deals with Mercedes-Benz and BMW to provide them electric-vehicle batteries.

Citi analysts maintain a buy rating on the company's shares and said in an report that the stock was trading below the sector's average in term of its price-earnings ratio. They added that gross profits margin in 2023 are expected to improve from last year due to "falling lithium price and lower processing fee for other raw materials."

Shares were last 2.5% higher at CNY444.27.


Write to Bingyan Wang at bingyan.wang@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-12-23 2205ET