CHANG'AN Automobile (Group) Ltd said that it will ask shareholders for approval next month to buy back as much as HK$909 million (US$117 million) of its foreign-currency denominated Class B shares to help boost the slumping share price.

Ford Motor Co's Chinese partner will repurchase stock at prices no more than HK$3.68 per share over a 12-month period, the Chongqing-based company said in a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange yesterday. It will ask shareholders to approve the plan at a meeting on March 3.

The number of shares to be bought back won't exceed 18.12 percent of the company's total equity capital, Chang'an Auto said. The company's Shenzhen-listed B-shares slid 76 percent last year to HK$1.68 on October 9, the last day the securities were traded.