(Yicai Global) Dec. 2 -- Shares in Wuxi Commercial Mansion Grand Orient advanced over 3 percent this morning on the news that the department store-to-car sales conglomerate will invest CNY75 million (USD11.9 million) to help a unit set up a chain of Mercedez-Benz passenger car dealerships in its home base of Wuxi, southeastern Jiangsu province.

Wuxi Commercial’s stock price [SHE:600327] closed up 0.99 percent at CNY4.08 (USD0.632) today. It had earlier reached CNY4.17.

Wuxi Oriental Runchi Automobile Sales Service has recently received a passenger car distribution license from Mercedes-Benz, the luxury car brand owned by Germany’s Daimler and China’s most popular luxury vehicle marque, the parent firm said yesterday.

Oriental Runchi already has a permit to sell Mercedes-Benz’s commercial vehicles, or autos that transport goods or paying passengers. Now that it also has a license to sell passenger cars, it can optimize its product structure to better capture opportunities in the high-end auto market, Wuxi Commercial said.

Mercedes-Benz is China’s top-selling luxury car marque. Sales were up 10 percent in the first 10 months from the same period last year to 610,000 units, despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Editor: Kim Taylor