Join hands with Lixun Precision Car Manufacturing, Chery series mixed reform for more than two years and then return to the embrace of Wuhu?

An announcement by the "fruit chain" giant Lixun Precision may put an end to the "enmity and hatred" between Chery and Qingdao Wudaokou that has lasted for more than two years.

On the evening of February 11, Lixun Precision officially announced that it will work with Chery New Energy to officially enter the car manufacturing industry, and at the same time, its controlling shareholder, Lixun Limited, will spend 10.054 billion yuan to acquire 19.88% of the equity of Chery Holdings, 7.87% of the equity of Chery Automobile and 6.24% of the equity of Chery New Energy from Qingdao Wudaokou, the largest shareholder of Chery Holdings.

The first financial reporter learned that previously, Qingdao Wudaokou held 46.77% of the equity of Chery Holdings, after the completion of the transaction, Qingdao Wudaokou's shareholding in Chery Holdings will drop to 26.89%, lower than the 27.68% shareholding ratio of Wuhu Construction Investment Co., Ltd. (wholly owned by Wuhu State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission), as the second largest shareholder, and Lixun Limited will rank fourth.

Going around, Chery's mixed reform to sell the status of controlling shareholder is still the head of the snake tail after all.

The "foggy" mixed road

Chery's fate with Qingdao Wudaokou also begins with the former's capital increase and share expansion project launched in September 2018.

At that time, Chery Holdings and Chery Automobile respectively issued capital increase and share expansion notices on the Yangtze River Equity Exchange, and the two major projects were officially listed at a transaction reserve price of 7.911 billion yuan and 8.333 billion yuan respectively, totaling 16.244 billion yuan.

However, a year later, the project has still not yielded results, and Chery restarted the mixed reform in September 2019 and reduced the transaction price by 1.9 billion yuan.

This time Chery waited for the "white knight" Qingdao Wudaokou. In December 2019, the latter subscribed for 30.99% of Chery Holdings for 7.586 billion yuan and 18.52% of Chery Automobile for 6.863 billion yuan. In addition, Qingdao Wudaokou also transferred a total of 19.56% of chery holdings from Huatai Asset Management and Wuhu Ruichuang. The total amount of the above is 19.601 billion yuan.

So far, Qingdao Wudaokou holds 51% of the equity of Chery Holdings and 35.58% of Chery Automobile, becoming the largest shareholder of the two companies, and replacing the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Wuhu as the actual controlling person of Chery Holdings.

For why Qingdao Wudaokou was chosen, Chery Automobile insiders once told reporters that Qingdao Wudaokou is "sincere", on the one hand, it is willing to buy it at a premium of 100 million yuan; on the other hand, Qingdao Wudaokou also promised to "help not add chaos".

The above-mentioned person also pointed out that Chery's introduction of Qingdao Wudaokou is actually equivalent to obtaining the "endorsement" of Qingdao Jimo District, which is an important cornerstone investor of Qingdao Wudaokou.

On December 20, 2019, Qingdao Jimo District and Chery Holding Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Jinan, and Chery New Energy Vehicle Project officially settled in Jimo District.

However, the subsequent development is quite different from Chery's expectations.

In 2020, there are many sources of news that Qingdao Wudaokou follow-up funds can not be paid, in this mixed reform, Qingdao Wudaokou nearly 10 billion funds have not arrived.

Although Chery and Qingdao Wudaokou both debunked rumors, some "clues" still exposed the obstruction of this mixed reform.

On the one hand, according to tianyancha information, Qingdao Wudaokou has never directly held the equity of Chery Automobile, and in July 2021, with chery Holdings withdrawing its shares in Chery Automobile, its idea of indirectly holding Chery Automobile through Chery Holdings also failed. Moreover, Qingdao Wudaokou's shareholding in Chery Holdings is not 51%, but 46.77%.

In this regard, Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the All-China Passenger Transport Association, told the media that this should be the mixed reform of Qingdao Wudaokou and Chery that has not been completely completed.

In addition, the executives of Qingdao Wudaokou who were originally stationed in the Chery department also began to gradually withdraw last year.

According to the information of Tianyancha, in August 2021, Zhou Jianmin, the actual controller behind Qingdao Wudaokou, withdrew from Chery Automobile, and the Zhou Jiannan he brought with him withdrew. In December 2021, Zhao Zhenhua, another natural person shareholder behind Qingdao Wudaokou, also withdrew from Chery Holdings. Zhou Jiannan was also widely regarded by the industry as a key figure who will lead Chery Automobile to capital operation and achieve overall listing.

Chery New Energy's project in Jimo District, Qingdao Has Not Had New News for a Long Time. In February last year, Chery Qingdao Plant announced the start of construction with a total investment of 23 billion yuan, and plans to roll off the production line in December 2022. However, at present, the reporter can not find the relevant recruitment information on the Internet, and the latest company phone announced by Chery (Qingdao) Operation Co., Ltd. has also been stopped.

Can the "fruit chain" giant bring new opportunities?

The investment of Lixun Precision will undoubtedly show the "retreat" of Qingdao Wudaokou in this Chery mixed reform.

Qingdao Wudaokou took a back seat to the "second line" by selling 19.88% of chery Holdings, 7.87% of Chery and 6.24% of Chery New Energy to Lixun Precision for a consideration of 10.054 billion yuan.

This also means that in this mixed reform of Chery that lasted more than two years, the control of chery was returned from the Government of Jimo District of Qingdao City to the hands of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Wuhu City.

As for whether this will affect the previous factory construction of Chery New Energy in Qingdao, as of press time, Chery Holdings has not replied to the first financial reporter.

For Luxshare Precision to enter the Chery series, the industry is not surprised.

Wit Display chief analyst Lin Zhi pointed out to reporters, "The smartphone market has been saturated, mobile phone foundry companies are looking for new opportunities, car electrification will bring new possibilities to foundries, so almost all (Apple) foundries are laying out electric vehicles, for example, Foxconn bet on automotive foundries, Wingtech Technology entered the automotive semiconductor industry, and it is natural for Luxun Precision to get involved in the automotive business." ”

Luxun Precision pointed out in the announcement that the company and Chery New Energy intend to jointly establish a joint venture company, specializing in the research and development and manufacturing of new energy vehicles, providing cutting-edge R&D design, mass production platform and sea exit for Lixun Precision's core auto parts business, with the goal of achieving the company's medium- and long-term goal of becoming a leading manufacturer of auto parts Tier 1.

As a "fruit chain" giant, Luxshare Precision has also caused more speculation in entering the game.

Lin Zhi also pointed out that like Foxconn's thinking, Luxshare Precision also hopes to get Apple car orders, Apple has not finalized the car foundry now, Luxun Precision may enter the Apple car supply chain and become an Apple car foundry.

Although whether it can eventually become Apple's automotive supply chain is not yet known, some insiders pointed out that Chery has newly obtained more than 10 billion yuan of funds through this cooperation, which is good news for it, after all, chery is facing financial pressure is not small.

Previously, Chery disclosed its financial situation in the announcement of capital increase and share expansion. As of June 30, 2019, Chery Holdings had a net profit of -155 million yuan, total assets of 90.417 billion yuan and total liabilities of 68.508 billion yuan; Chery Automobile's net profit was -1.374 billion yuan, total assets of 83.082 billion yuan, and total liabilities of 62.293 billion yuan.