Text: Xiao Yu
When it comes to which industry is the hottest at the moment, most people will probably say the Internet economy. Of course, the Internet industry is indeed sought after by more and more capital today, but behind these economies, it is inseparable from the preparation of the real economy. Regardless of the country or region, the most important and basic industry is the physical manufacturing industry. Manufacturing directly reflects a country's level of productivity and is an indispensable part of the national economy.
Not surprisingly, Huawei, located in Guangdong Province, China's largest economic province, topped the list with a revenue of 891.3 billion yuan in the list of China's top 500 private enterprises in 2021. Of course, this data is not only the first in the manufacturing industry, but also the first in the top 500 private enterprises. So far, Huawei has ranked first in the top 500 private enterprises for 6 consecutive years.
In addition to Huawei in Guangdong Province, Jiangsu, as the second largest province in China's GDP, is not to mention more, Jiangsu Hengli Group ranks second in the manufacturing industry with a revenue of nearly 700 billion. It is understood that Hengli Group is an international manufacturing enterprise with the development of refining, petrochemical, polyester new materials and the whole industrial chain of textiles.
According to relevant statistics, the employees of Hengli Group have reached 120,000, and 3 subsidiaries have been successfully listed. At present, Hengli Group has one of the world's largest single production capacity PTA factories, one of the world's largest ultra-bright filament and industrial yarn production bases, and one of the world's largest weaving enterprises. It can be said that it is the well-deserved first private enterprise in Jiangsu.
Since Guangdong and Jiangsu are so prominent in the manufacturing industry, Zhejiang, as a member of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, will naturally not lag behind. So what is the largest manufacturing group in Zhejiang Province?
According to the 2021 China Top 500 Private Enterprises Manufacturing List, Geely Holding Group has an annual revenue of 325.6 billion yuan, ranking fifth on the list, is the largest manufacturing group in Zhejiang, and is also the largest private automobile enterprise in China. It is also the second largest private enterprise in Zhejiang Province after Alibaba Group.
As we all know, nowadays the car has almost become a must-have vehicle for every family. China has also become a major automobile sales country in the world. According to the "China Auto Industry Development Annual Report (2021)" report, China's auto market generally remained stable in 2020, with sales of 25.31 million vehicles, down 1.9% year-on-year, ranking first in the world for twelve consecutive years.
However, in terms of per capita car ownership, there is still a big gap between China and developed countries such as Japan and the United States. However, it is the existence of this gap that makes the sales volume of China's automobile market continue to grow. This also provides opportunities for many private car companies. Geely Group has become one of the companies that seize the opportunity.
Geely Group was founded in 1986, and its founder Li Shufu is also destined to be extraordinary. At the beginning, Li Shufu was not engaged in the automotive industry, but made refrigerators that were very popular in manufacturing at that time. In the next eight or nine years, Li Shufu also tried other industries, but none of them were ideal. It was not until the early 1990s that Geely was led into the motorcycle industry, and the entire group gradually began to take shape, and it officially entered the automotive industry in 1997.
After 2000, with the rapid development of China's economy, the automobile began to gradually enter thousands of households, and Li Shufu also seized this opportunity in time, which made Geely start to be famous. But what makes Geely really reach the top is the acquisition of the European luxury car brand Volvo.
In fact, Volvo was already in a state of serious loss at that time. And Geely's annual revenue that year was only about 4 billion, at this time Volvo's annual revenue has reached 100 billion, how to swallow enterprises larger than themselves, is indeed a big problem, of which the twists and turns can be imagined.
In March 2010, Geely signed a definitive equity acquisition agreement with Ford Motor in Gothenburg, Sweden, acquiring a 100% stake in Volvo Cars and related assets including intellectual property rights. This also means that Volvo Cars has officially become a brand of Geely Group. And after the successful acquisition, volvo achieved profitability in less than 2 years, which has become one of the most successful cases of overseas mergers and acquisitions by Chinese companies.
After a successful experience, Geely is even more handy. On February 24, 2018, Geely acquired 9.69% of Daimler's shares through its overseas corporate entities. After the completion of the stake, Geely Group became daimler's largest single shareholder and promised to hold its equity for a long time. Daimler is also the parent company of Mercedes-Benz in Germany.
However, by December 13, 2021, BAIC Group announced that it had held 9.98% of Daimler's shares through continued investment. That is to say, at present, BAIC Group has taken over the identity of Daimler's largest shareholder from Geely. Of course, Geely Group is still one of Daimler's major shareholders. Baihai Automobile is also one of the five major automobile groups in China, which also shows that Chinese companies still occupy a dominant position in Daimler.
Although Geely has now lost the position of the first shareholder, Geely's purpose has actually been achieved. The reason why Geely painstakingly acquired Volvo and invested in Mercedes-Benz was that the ultimate goal was to run to technology. In March 2019, Geely Group and Daimler AG announced the establishment of a joint venture to jointly operate and promote the transformation of the Smart brand on a global scale. This also shows that Geely's purpose is to cooperate and develop.
In the end, Geely also slowly learned and absorbed advanced technologies through technical cooperation, successfully promoted its own development, and became the largest private automobile manufacturing group in China. And on October 29, 2021, Volvo Cars acquired by Geely Group was also successfully listed in Stockholm, Sweden, once again contributing to Geely's development. Under the leadership of Li Shufu, what kind of miracles will Geely Automobile create? We'll see.