GREAT Wall Motor Co., China’s largest sport utility vehicle (SUV) maker, had postponed its domestic A-share listing until later this year partly due to concern over the mainland’s slumping stock market, a source familiar with the situation said yesterday.

    Great Wall Motor, which in October 2007 announced a plan to issue up to 121.7 million A shares in Shanghai, had decided to move back its IPO target to September from May, said the source.

    The firm has never disclosed a timeline for the offering, but the source said an internal target had been set for May and had now been delayed in part due to weakness in China’s stock market.

    The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has fallen nearly 50 percent from last October’s record peak after a nearly sixfold jump during a two-year bull run.

    The source said, however, that Great Wall Motor would not alter the size of the share sale, which would be valued at up to HK$1.08 billion (US$138.6 million) based on its Hong Kong share price at midday yesterday.

    The company’s chief executive Wang Fengying said over the weekend that she hoped the shares could list in Shanghai before the end of the year.

    “We are still in the middle of approval procedures. I hope we can make it this year,” Wang said, although she declined to discuss the firm’s internal IPO timetable. (SD-Agencies)