On December 30, Renault Brilliance Gold Cup Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Renault Brilliance Gold Cup") has filed for bankruptcy. The enterprise investigation shows that the case number is (2021) Liao 01 Breaking Shen No. 24, the applicant is Renault Brilliance Jinbei, and the economic court is the Intermediate People's Court of Shenyang City, Liaoning Province.
According to media reports, as early as three months ago, There was a factory shutdown in The Renault Brilliance Golden Cup, and in early December, all employees were on holiday and suspended from December 20, and many employees defended their rights, but did not get relevant responses. Guillaume Sicard, former CEO of Renault Brilliance Andrès China and chief operating officer of Renault China, has also left China to prepare for the UK as head of the Renault UK market and managing director.
In addition, the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup has been in arrears to a number of suppliers for several months, and some suppliers have taken the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup to court. According to the risk information of Tianyancha, the company's current execution amount has exceeded 9 million yuan.
Lawyer Liu Bin of Wanshang Tianqin (Shenzhen) Law Firm said: According to Article 2 of the Enterprise Bankruptcy Law, if an enterprise legal person cannot pay off its debts as they fall due, and its assets are insufficient to pay off all its debts or it clearly lacks solvency, it can apply for bankruptcy.
For enterprises, filing for bankruptcy is conducive to getting rid of their debt difficulties and making a comeback. Although in the early years, the public had a certain prejudice against the bankruptcy system, this prejudice has gradually been dispelled by social development.
In addition, for small creditors such as users of Renault Brilliance Golden Cup, entering bankruptcy is conducive to protecting their interests, otherwise after the superior and large creditors obtain high repayment through preferential seizure, enforcement and other means, the debtor may be completely unable to protect the interests of users.
Some media revealed that the Renault Brilliance Golden Cup began to carry out organizational reform last year, announcing that it "launched the independent entrepreneurship plan for auxiliary employees". In December last year, employees within Renault Brilliance revealed that the company plans to reduce the total number of employees by 30% to 40%. This year, some employees revealed, "Many people are gone, and Great Wall Motors has received many renault Brilliance Gold Cup people."
In fact, as early as 2020, the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup was facing the dilemma of cash flow depletion. Although the joint venture received a capital injection of 600 million yuan from both shareholders, insiders said that the funds are not expected to support a year's consumption, and the 600 million yuan is likely to be the "last capital injection" of the shareholders. In September this year, foreign media reported that Renault planned to end its joint venture with Brilliance and withdraw from the Chinese commercial vehicle market.
It is understood that the predecessor of Renault Brilliance Jinbei automobile Co., Ltd. is Shenyang Brilliance Jinbei Automobile Co., Ltd., the Jinbei brand was born in 1989, which is the only commercial vehicle brand in China that represents a category with a brand name. In 2010, the number of Jinbei buses exceeded 1 million, becoming the first brand of light passengers in China, reaching 75% at the highest market share in this segment, ranking first in China's commercial vehicle market for 19 consecutive years.
In December 2017, Brilliance Automotive and Renault Group established a joint venture company of Renault Brilliance in accordance with a 51%:49% equity distribution, which mainly produces three types of models: car-oriented vehicles, new energy commercial vehicles and personalized modified commercial vehicles. According to the official plan, by 2023, 5 core competitive models will be launched, and it will also enter the electric light passenger market, and by 2025, the proportion of mid-size vans in the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup will reach 15%.
However, since the establishment of the joint venture, the introduction of new products in Renault Brilliance Jinbei has been slow, and it was not until November last year that a remodeled model, the Jinbei Sea Lion King, was launched. According to the data, the sales volume of the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup in 2020 was 23,000 units, a year-on-year decline of 42.8%.
After announcing its exit from China's traditional fuel vehicle market last year, Renault said it would focus on two pillars of business in the Chinese market – electric vehicles and light commercial vehicles. Among them, the light commercial vehicle business will be carried out through Renault Brilliance Jinbei Automobile Co., Ltd., making full use of Jinbei brand equity and Renault technology; the electric vehicle business will be carried out through two other joint ventures, EasyJet New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. and Jiangling Group New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd.
According to the first financial report, Dongfeng Renault has withdrawn from the Chinese market, for What Renault plans to do next, as of press time, Renault China has not replied.
Zhang Xiang, an analyst in the automotive industry, said: "I am not optimistic about Renault's development prospects in China. On the one hand, there are too many joint venture brands in China, competition is fierce, and some backward production capacity needs to be eliminated. Renault, on the other hand, is a niche brand and doesn't have much of a character. Renault entered Taiwan about thirty years ago, entered Chinese mainland about a decade ago, and came in in a tight state in the Chinese auto market, when the Chinese auto market was in short supply. But now, China's auto market has excess capacity and has long entered the stage of survival of the fittest. Coupled with the intervention of new power auto brands such as Weilai and Xiaopeng, it has accelerated the speed of eliminating backward production capacity in the Chinese auto market.
On the other hand, Renault's own models imported into China are relatively backward and not the latest models. They do not pay enough attention to the Chinese market and ignore the needs of Chinese market users. Renault has missed the best development opportunities in China, and the current Pattern of China's auto market has been formed, and Renault is difficult to recover.