There is survival of the fittest in any industry, and the automotive industry is no exception. With only a dozen days to go until the New Year, the bankruptcy reorganization of Renault Brilliance Jinbei Co., Ltd. has ushered in the latest developments after arrears of payments to suppliers, suspension of employee wages, and the shutdown of the factory a few months ago.
Before it blooms, it withers first
On January 12, 2022, the Shenyang Intermediate People's Court accepted the reorganization application of Renault Brilliance Jinbei Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Renault Brilliance) on the 12th, marking that the Sino-French joint venture car company officially entered the bankruptcy reorganization procedure. The court ruled that the debtor, Renault Brilliance Jinbei Automobile Co., Ltd., filed for bankruptcy reorganization on its own. The company cannot pay off its debts as they fall due, its assets are insufficient to pay off all its debts, and it is necessary and feasible for reorganization.
According to the relevant audit report, as of October 31, 2021, Renault Brilliance Jinbei Automobile Co., Ltd. had total assets of about 3.7 billion yuan and total liabilities of about 4.3 billion yuan, and the company's unliquidated debts due have led to a large number of litigation and enforcement cases. Previously, Renault Brilliance had arrears in supplier payments, suspension of employee wages, and factory shutdowns a few months ago, which was also the beginning of Renault Brilliance's bankruptcy reorganization.
Brilliance Jinbei was the first brand in China's light passenger market at its peak, but since then, due to the entry of commercial vehicle companies such as Jiangling Motors, coupled with the lack of competitiveness of product strength, the annual sales of Brilliance Jinbei have been declining, with annual sales of only 23,000 vehicles in 2016, and net profits falling from 0.36 billion yuan in 2015 to a loss of 208,800 yuan.
At that time, brilliance gold cup urgently needed a breakthrough, at this time Renault group appeared, not only brought abundant funds, but also brought technical help to brilliance gold cup, which can be described as a long drought.
In 2017, Renault Group and Brilliance China jointly invested in the establishment of renault Brilliance Gold Cup, with a shareholding ratio of 49% and 51% respectively. In addition, Brilliance Group also resold 49% of the equity of Brilliance Jinbei to Renault Group for 1 yuan, hoping that the two sides would further invest 1.5 billion yuan in the future to achieve a turnaround in the light passenger business.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup, Brilliance Group and Renault Group were full of confidence and wanted to show their skills in the light bus market, and planned to produce and sell light commercial vehicles under the three brands of Jinbei, Renault and Huasong, and achieve annual sales of 150,000 vehicles by 2022, involving MPVs, medium-sized vans and trucks and large vans and trucks.
Unfortunately, the ideal is very full, but the reality is very bone. Although Renault Group brought two MPV commercial vehicles Master and Trafic to the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup, as well as two Chinese-supplied cars, Renault Brilliance Guanjing and electric vehicle Lingkun EV, these models are only over the scene at the auto show, the actual progress is particularly slow, and the first model of the Renault brand will be launched in 2022.
The addition of Renault Group only brought funds, did not bring technical help, and the introduction of Renault models was also delayed again and again, but became a burden and hidden danger of brilliance gold cup.
Brilliance Renault Gold Cup originally wanted to do a big job in the light bus market, who knows that the next year sales began to decline, and out of control. According to the data, in 2018, the sales volume of the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup was 43,000 units, down 30% year-on-year; in 2019, the sales volume of the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup was 40,200 units, down 6.5% year-on-year; and the sales of the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup in 2020 were about 23,000 units, down another 42.8% year-on-year. The long-term inability to make ends meet has led the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup to the end of bankruptcy reorganization.
Pull a hair, move the whole body
Because the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup is not directly related to Renault Brilliance, the most affected are Brilliance enterprises, including Jinbei Automobile and Shenhua Holdings. As the supplier of Renault Brilliance Gold Cup, Jinbei Automobile mainly provides automotive seats and other auto parts products for Renault Brilliance Jinbei, while Shenhua Holdings carries out automotive vehicle and accessories procurement business with Renault Brilliance Jinbei, due to the long-term income of Renault Brilliance Jinbei, it also leads to the two only receiving a small part of the payment, it can be said that other funds are directly adrift.
In addition, brilliance Renault Gold Cup's "big brother" Brilliance Auto was also ruled bankruptcy and reorganization by the court on November 20, 2020, which means that Brilliance Group now has insufficient heart and strength, does not have any excess funds, and has no ability to help Renault Brilliance Gold Cup through the difficulties. At the same time, with the bankruptcy reorganization of the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup, it also means that Brilliance Group has lost a light passenger car market sector, which makes Brilliance Group worse.
In April 2020, Renault Group's joint venture in China Dongfeng Renault announced its dissolution, and now renault Brilliance's Gold Cup has been sanctioned and bankrupt, which means that Renault Group's development in the Chinese market has once again been contracted. However, despite the repeated setbacks of Renault Group in the Chinese auto market, Renault Group will not give up the Chinese auto market, after all, the Chinese auto market is one of the largest auto markets in the world.
With the white-hot electrification, Renault Group has achieved good results in the European market with pure electric small cars, so Renault Group intends to abandon "oil" from "electricity" and focus on the domestic new energy market. In addition to the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup, Renault Group has two joint venture companies in China, namely Easy Jet New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. and Jiangling Group New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., both of which are car companies focusing on the field of new energy vehicles.
EasyJet New Energy is nominally a Sino-foreign joint venture company, but it is using the advantages of the domestic electric vehicle industry chain to produce domestic vehicles, hanging the logo of the joint venture brand, and selling the whole vehicle to the offshore market, which is the curve development of Renault Group in the domestic market.
Jiangling Group New Energy focuses on the domestic new energy vehicle market, and its first pure electric model, Renault Jiangling Yi, has been listed in September 2020, which is not only sold in China, but also in the European market. However, although the product strength of Renault Jianglingyi is still good, the model has not set off too much waves in the domestic market, there is almost no heat, and sales are average.
The people evaluate the car
The failure of the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup, a small part comes from brilliance group, and most of it comes from the Renault Group, from the earliest Sanjiang Renault, to Dongfeng Renault, and then to today's Renault Brilliance Gold Cup, again and again failures, indicating that Renault Group has not paid attention to the Chinese automobile market in essence, only brought funds to the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup, but did not introduce models and technologies, so that the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup lost the competitive advantage of joint venture car companies in the market; moreover, before the Dongfeng Renault period, Renault Group has not seriously investigated the domestic automobile market and consumers, overestimated its own brand power, resulting in the introduction of a variety of products, and since then Renault Group has not made changes, which has allowed Renault Group to run into walls everywhere in China.
The Chinese market is a place where domestic and foreign car companies must compete. Nowadays, with the joint venture share ratio of Chinese car companies from restrictions to openness, BMW, Hyundai and other car companies are eyeing the joint venture shares, and independent brands are also slowly encroaching on the share of foreign capital. Affected by Tesla and the new domestic car-making forces, whether it is its own brand or a joint venture brand are actively laying out electrification, it is more difficult for Renault Group to find a breakthrough in the new energy vehicle market, and it is only a matter of time before it withdraws from the Chinese market.