BYD Co., the Chinese automaker partially owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., plans to sell new shares equivalent to as much as 20 percent of its Hong Kong-traded stock, said two people with knowledge of the matter.

BYD hired Deutsche Bank AG and UBS AG to arrange the sale and the company’s board may approve the plans next week, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the proposal hasn’t been made public. Based on Thursday’s close, the sale would be worth as much as HK$4.17 billion ($538 million), according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Veronica Jiang, a Shenzhen-based spokeswoman, said she couldn’t immediately comment.