The research firm expects the group to deliver 13,000 Mazda cars as well as 4,000 Kias and Peugeots combined.

As of yesterday, BAuto had accumulated an outstanding order backlog of about 8,500 units for Mazda.

The group is absorbing half of the increase in sales and service tax (SST) from July till year-end for new bookings for Mazda, Kia and Peugeot cars.

“We believe this will provide a healthy order bank going into 2023,” it said.

“Moreover, we see upside to BAuto’s sales volume once it kicks off the local assembly of new sports utility vehicles (SUVs) for Mazda and Kia at Inokom by the fourth quarter of 2023,” it said.

Besides, BAuto also posted positive results in its first financial quarter ended July 31, 2022 for the financial year 2023 (Q123), which saw the auto distributor report a net profit of RM50.16 million on revenue of RM717 million, driven by stronger sales volume from its Malaysian and Philippine operations.

As such, CGS-CIMB has reiterated its “add” call on BAuto’s shares with an unchanged target price of RM2.40 on the back of potential new localisation projects, stronger contributions from new Kia and Peugeot models, and higher dividend payouts.

At 10.19am, BAuto added five sen to RM1.88 sen, with 527,000 shares traded.