Shenzhen Wuzhoulong Automobile Co., Ltd. ("Wuzhoulong Automobile"), which once aspired to become the first brand of new energy buses in China, was momentarily lost due to the desire for profit, and now it has fallen into the situation of "eating soil".
On February 18, the first financial reporter made an exclusive visit and found that Wuzhoulong, headquartered in Baolong Industrial City, Longgang District, Shenzhen, had a completely changed frame workshop, chassis workshop and other factories, which were full of slag. Some insiders close to the Wuzhou Dragon said that the Wuzhou Dragon basically has no room for redemption.
The domestic new energy commercial vehicle market, stimulated by high subsidies, surged to 180,000 units in 2015, due to early overdrafts and a sharp decline in subsidies, and then fell year after year, until 2021 to return to 186,000 units. In the process of market ups and downs, some companies stand up, some companies fall, some new energy commercial vehicle companies involved in insurance fraud, so push themselves into the abyss, Wuzhoulong is one of them.
The workshop becomes a pile of muck
Spring has come, but the Wuzhou Dragon is still unable to regain its vitality, and its Longgang Park presents a strange scene. There is no automobile production equipment in the workshop, but instead of concrete mixing tools, loaders, etc., the sound of welding comes and goes.
(The big pit dug out of the Wuzhou dragon workshop reporter Wu Mianqiang photography)
On February 18, the first financial reporter visited the park of Wuzhoulong headquarters and saw that the ground in the assembly workshop was dug out of a large pit about one or two meters deep, and steel bars were inserted, and workers were working on it. The frame workshop and chassis workshop are piled up with a large amount of muck and other construction waste, which is a mess. This is a world away from the neat and beautiful factory buildings of new energy vehicles in the past, and now it has become a slag treatment station.
(Factory building full of construction waste in Wuzhoulong Park Reporter Wu Mianqiang Photography)
Originally, a company named Shenzhen Dongshen Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Dongshen Environmental Protection") settled in Wuzhoulong Industrial Park. The on-site staff told reporters that after they broke the building stone, they separated the sand and gravel and reused it through cleaning. The on-site staff also said that they have been working on the site for some time, and Dongshen Environmental Protection has leased the site here, and the property here still belongs to Wuzhoulong. However, this claim has not been confirmed by Dongshen Environmental Protection. According to the data of Tianyancha, Dongshen Environmental Protection Registered Place is located in 101, Building 6, Wuzhoulong Automobile Shenzhen Park, and its business is the sales of construction engineering slag, engineering mud, construction waste and silt, as well as sorting, refining, and discharging treatment.
(Frame workshop full of construction waste, reporter Wu Mianqiang, photography)
The reporter saw at the scene that the office building area in the Wuzhoulong Park is still neat and clean, the "Wuzhoulong" company name and LOGO hanging on the building are well preserved, and there are more than a dozen "Wuzhoulong" buses with Guangdong B and Qiong A license plates parked at the entrance of the building. "Due to long-term parking, parts of the body are rusting." Workers inside the factory said.
(Wuzhoulong Automobile Factory area uninhabited bus reporter Wu Mianqiang photography)
During normal working hours, Wuzhoulong's office building occasionally has people entering and leaving, and there is no front desk reception staff on duty in the lobby on the first floor. However, the walls of the exhibition area on the first floor and the glass cabinet still show the glory of WuzhouLong's past.
As the earliest high-tech enterprise engaged in the production and research and development of new energy buses in China, Wuzhoulong Group once had more than 10,000 employees, and there were more than 1,000 technical research and development personnel alone.
"In the past, in the Longgang and Pingshan areas, when it comes to new energy automobile enterprises, it belongs to WuzhouLong and BYD." A person working in the park told reporters that today, BYD is growing, and the Wuzhou Dragon has declined, which is lamentable.
WuzhouLong broke into the field of new energy vehicles earlier than BYD. In February 2000, the shareholders' meeting of Fuda Group controlled by Zhang Jingxin, a businessman in Jiexi, Guangdong Province, passed a resolution to establish Shenzhen Wuzhoulong Automobile Co., Ltd. (the predecessor of Wuzhoulong). In December 2000, Wuzhoulong established an electric vehicle research and development center, with a total investment of hundreds of millions of yuan, and opened an ice-breaking journey of independent research and development of new energy vehicles. The following year, the first domestic hybrid bus prototype "China No. 1" rolled off the production line. Zhang Jingxin was once considered a "leader" in the industry. He was determined to build Wuzhoulong Automobile into China's first brand of new energy buses and work old brands of commercial vehicles such as Yutong.
Following the successive exports of Wuzhoulong hybrid buses to Macao, the United States, the Philippines and other overseas markets, Wuzhoulong began to accelerate the layout of the domestic market in 2009, and has invested heavily in Chongqing, Shenyang, Jieyang and other places to establish new energy vehicles and power battery subsidiaries, its products cover all the key links of the new energy automobile industry chain, with an annual production capacity of 30,000 vehicles and titanium-manganese alloy power lithium batteries 300 million amperes.
Wuzhoulong new energy bus once overshadowed BYD, which provided 1511 new energy vehicles for the 26th World University Games, and became the first enterprise in Shenzhen to put in new energy buses. In 2015, Zhang Jingxin, the helmsman, won the honorary title of the second "Shenzhen Industrialist". In December of that year, Wuzhoulong Automobile received capital injection from listed company Jingwei shares, becoming its second largest shareholder.
However, 2016 became a turning point for Wuzhoulong, when the company was first caught up in the storm of spontaneous combustion safety accidents and then involved in a fraud scandal.
Why did the Five Continents Dragon fall
China's new energy commercial vehicles surged eightfold to 180,000 in 2015. Behind the crazy growth, some car companies do not hesitate to take risks to defraud new energy subsidies.
In September 2016, the Ministry of Finance publicly exposed five typical cases of serious "fraudulent compensation" to the public. In December of that year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments successively issued penalty documents to new energy vehicle manufacturers involved in the problems of "no car with license plate", "lack of electricity in the car" and "non-conformity of the logo", which gave Suzhou Jimsi the penalty of "canceling the production qualification of the whole vehicle", which was the first enterprise in the country to be cancelled since the implementation of the vehicle production enterprise and product announcement management system. In addition, four enterprises, including Suzhou Golden Dragon, Wuzhou Dragon, Henan Shaolin Bus, and Chery Wanda Guizhou Bus, recovered the pre-allocated funds of the central financial subsidy obtained from 2,416 illegally licensed vehicles in 2015, and fined 50% of the amount of the problem in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Regulations on the Punishment and Punishment of Financial Violations. At the same time, since 2016, the above four enterprises have been disqualified from the central financial subsidy. As for when these four enterprises will resume the implementation of the central financial subsidy policy, it depends on the rectification of local governments and enterprises.
The first financial reporter reviewed the relevant new energy vehicle promotion and application subsidy standards in 2015, and the central government in 2015 ranged from 300,000 yuan / vehicle to 500,000 yuan / vehicle for pure electric buses, and 250,000 yuan for plug-in hybrid buses. In addition, Shenzhen City, where Wuzhoulong is located, subsidizes electric buses in a 1:1 ratio on this basis. This means that an electric bus central plus local subsidies often amount to 500,000 yuan, and some models even up to 1 million yuan.
The five new energy bus companies that were exposed defrauded more than 1 billion yuan, of which Suzhou Jimxi cheated the most serious, and the amount of central financial subsidies declared by Wuzhou Longduo was the smallest. Wuzhoulong has 154 vehicles that have not been completed by the end of 2015, but in 2015, they applied for a motor vehicle driving license in advance and declared 55.74 million yuan in central financial subsidies. It was a moment of greed that seriously injured the Five Continents Dragon's vitality.
Wuzhoulong, which is deeply involved in the fraud scandal, once tried to break through, and in September 2016, it completed the shareholding system transformation and pointed to the IPO. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released information in July 2017 that according to the acceptance report issued by the expert group, Wuzhoulong had put in place the rectification of the administrative penalty decision, and the company's production consistency guarantee ability met the relevant requirements, and resumed its declaration of the "Catalogue of Recommended Models for the Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles". In August of the same year, Wuzhoulong received investment from Ningbo Fenghua Zhiyun Zhide Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) (hereinafter referred to as "Zhiyun Fund"), and the company's valuation reached 5 billion yuan. Like other domestic bus companies, Wuzhoulong has also spent huge sums of money to lay out the field of fuel cell vehicles and participate in the manufacture and production of hydrogen fuel cell buses.
However, the development memorabilia posted on the Wuzhou Dragon Wall came to an abrupt end in 2017. This new energy bus company has entered a downward channel sharply. In May 2018, Wuzhoulong was rumored to have overdue its loans. According to the announcement of Jingwei shares, Wuzhoulong signed the "Working Capital Loan Contract" with the Shenzhen Longhua Branch of the Bank of China, and part of the loan under the contract was overdue and failed to repay by Wuzhoulong Automobile. Since then, Wuzhoulong has been rumored to have stalled production and arrears of wages to employees. In 2019, Internet forum posts showed that the north plant of Wuzhoulong's subsidiary Shenyang Wuzhoulong had been completely demolished, and other buildings had been demolished one after another.
Some insiders close to Wuzhou Dragon said in an interview with the first financial reporter that Wuzhou Dragon is now on the verge of bankruptcy and has no skills. The matter of "cheating and compensation" was exposed and severely punished, which was a heavy blow to the Five Continents Dragon. In the bidding projects of electric buses in various places, Wuzhoulong, which was on the blacklist of fraud, basically lost the opportunity to win the bid.
"In addition to being affected by the fraud incident, Wuzhoulong has not kept up in terms of technology and operation." Market competition is brutal. In recent years, the new energy bus market has been falling and falling, which is inseparable from the gradual decline of subsidies. Previously, the development momentum of new energy buses was good, mainly driven by subsidies, and new energy bus companies were generally profitable, but with the gradual decline of subsidies, the cost of use and maintenance of commercial vehicles was high, and many car companies adjusted production and sales according to their own situation. The scale of this market is limited, and it has been basically occupied by Yutong, BYD, Zhongtong and other enterprises, and the probability of most new energy vehicle and bus companies breaking through is very low. The above-mentioned industry insiders said to the first financial reporter.
As one of the most important market segments in the field of new energy commercial vehicles, the competition of new energy buses has intensified, the strong Hengqiang situation has become prominent, and enterprises without strength have been eliminated one after another. For example, the sales volume of the top ten new energy bus companies in 2020 accounts for about 74% of the total sales volume of this market, and the market concentration is relatively high. The annual sales volume of new energy bus enterprises with less than 100 vehicles is 28, accounting for 39% of the number of bus companies, and the total sales volume accounts for only 1.7%, which is gradually marginalized.
Will the Wuzhou Dragon, which is on the verge of bankruptcy, have a chance to stand up?
Wuzhoulong, which is caught in a debt dispute, faces the situation of being applied for bankruptcy reorganization or liquidation by creditors.
According to Tianyancha data, since 2018 (as of February 20, 2022), the equity of Wuzhoulong and its subsidiaries has been continuously frozen by the court, and there have been 642 case filing information, 409 legal proceedings, 28 judicial assistance, and 69 restriction orders.
According to Ali's judicial auction, a batch of wuzhoulong machinery and equipment with an appraisal price of 825,700 yuan was seized by the Shenzhen Pingshan District People's Court and stored in the park. Finally, on February 18 this year, a user named Wu Ling bid for 462,400 yuan.
In recent years, Wuzhoulong has frequently been applied for bankruptcy by creditors, and on January 13, 2022, the relevant industrial and commercial information platform showed that Wuzhoulong Automobile was newly bankrupt and reorganized, and the applicant was Shenzhen Longtong Parking Lot Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Longtong").
Wuzhou Long Automobile and Longtong previously had a dispute over the housing lease contract. According to the documents disclosed in the Chinese judgment documents, the court of first instance ruled that Wuzhoulong paid 455,000 yuan in rent and interest to Longtong. Subsequently, WuzhouLong appealed. According to the second-instance judgment on August 27, 2020, Wuzhoulong paid the rent in the form of a commercial acceptance draft, and the bill of exchange could not be accepted after maturity, which should be deemed that Wuzhoulong Company failed to pay as agreed, and it should compensate Longtong for the loss of interest arising from the inability to accept the draft, and uphold the original judgment.
In addition, Wuzhoulong and Shenzhen Zhonglian Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhonglian Energy" ) had a dispute over the sale and purchase contract, and Wuzhoulong failed to pay 8.92 million yuan and interest on the purchase price. Zhonglian Energy Chuang applied to the Shenzhen Intermediate Court for bankruptcy liquidation of Wuzhoulong on the grounds that it could not pay off its debts as they fell due and obviously lacked solvency. However, on November 1, 2021, the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court's civil ruling showed that during the review process, Zhonglian Nengchuang proposed to withdraw its bankruptcy liquidation application against Wuzhoulong Automobile on October 28, 2021, and the court held that it complied with the law and should be allowed.
Tianyan's investigation showed that Wuzhoulong Automobile had a total of 11 bankruptcy reorganization information. In April 2021, CATL also applied to the Shenzhen Intermediate Court for wuzhoulong bankruptcy review. A court enforcement ruling in July 2021 stated that in the case of a dispute over the loan contract between the executor Ningde Times and the executor Wuzhoulong, the court applied for withdrawal of enforcement due to the enforcement settlement agreement between the two parties, and resumed enforcement when Wuzhoulong Automobile refused to perform the settlement agreement.
A person in charge of an enterprise that has participated in bankruptcy reorganization many times told first financial reporters that when the enterprise is plagued by debts and obviously lacks solvency, creditors can apply to the court for bankruptcy reorganization or bankruptcy liquidation of the enterprise, and whether and when the court approves it depends on the specific situation of the enterprise.
On January 19 this year, in response to investors' question on the interactive trading platform that "Wuzhoulong has now begun bankruptcy and restructuring", Jingwei shares responded that Wuzhoulong was in the process of restructuring and re-consolidating live assets.
On February 18, insiders of Wuzhoulong and its shares, Tokyo Wei Shares, were interviewed by the first financial reporter and both denied that Wuzhoulong was in a situation of bankruptcy reorganization. "For example, if you owe money, you can't pay me money, I go to the court to apply for your bankruptcy, but whether you can go bankrupt or how to go bankrupt, the bankrupt party must coordinate with the court, and someone who applies may not necessarily be executed." We are now an internal asset reorganization (group), not a bankruptcy reorganization filed by creditors. The relevant person of the board secretary office of Jingwei shares said.
The reporter found that at present, in the process of asset restructuring of Wuzhoulong, Li Jingyu, chairman of Jingwei Co., Ltd., has further increased his equity in Wuzhoulong, which indicates that his right to speak in Wuzhoulong has increased.
According to the announcement of Jingwei Co., Ltd. on December 7, 2021, based on the need for subsequent asset revitalization and investment recovery, Wuzhoulong carried out internal restructuring, and Guangdong Fuda Investment Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Fidelity Investment"), controlled by founder Zhang Jingxin, sold 11.39% of its shares in Wuzhoulong to Beijing Zhonghuan Investment Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhonghuan Investment"), which is the major shareholder of Jingwei Co., Ltd. and is actually controlled by Li Jingyu.
The announcement also said that according to the current situation of Wuzhoulong, based on the overall valuation of Wuzhoulong of 2 billion yuan, zhiyun fund actually paid 100 million yuan of investment funds to calculate and adjust the proportion of shares held by Zhiyun Fund in Wuzhoulong Automobile, that is, the proportion of shares held by Wuzhoulong Automobile held by Zhiyun Fund was adjusted to 5%. After the internal restructuring of Wuzhoulong Automobile, Jingwei shares held 45.6%, Fidelity Investment held 38.01%, Zhonghuan Investment held 11.39%, and Zhiyun Fund held 5%.
The above-mentioned secretary of the board of directors of Jingwei Shares further revealed that Wuzhoulong is now doing asset revitalization with other shareholders, whether it is land or other assets are under consideration.
What the outside world is quite concerned about is whether WuzhouLong currently has restructuring value? The above-mentioned secretary of the board of directors of Jingwei shares said that Wuzhoulong is currently being restructured, the value is definitely still there, how to develop in the follow-up, and whether everyone's opinions can be reached, there will be a lot of uncertainty.
It is worth noting that Wuzhoulong currently has a valuable hydrogen energy company, namely CLP Guo hydrogen fuel cell research and development institute (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "CLP Guo Hydrogen"), which was registered in 2016 and is now chaired by Zhang Jingxin. CLP Guohydro registered capital of 50 million yuan, shareholders are Wuzhoulong and Shenzhen Guohydro New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., each holding 50% of the shares. The latter is a high-tech enterprise focusing on hydrogen fuel cell technology research and power system product research and development, the company's core technology and products include hydrogen fuel cell power system MG series products and hydrogen fuel cell prototype development.
With the new energy commercial vehicles gradually coming out of the trough and hydrogen fuel commercial vehicles increasingly attracting market attention, is there still a chance for the fallen Wuzhou Dragon to stand up?
In 2021, in the case of a 6.6% year-on-year decline in overall sales of commercial vehicles, new energy commercial vehicles bucked the trend, with annual sales of 186,000 units, a cumulative increase of 54% year-on-year, of which sales in December last year were 33,000 units, which was related to the further decline of subsidies in 2022 and the company grabbed the gate. This year, the central financial subsidy for new energy buses is only a few thousand yuan to 64,800 yuan, and vehicles licensed after December 31 will no longer be subsidized.
The utility of policy dividends such as subsidies for new energy commercial vehicles has gradually weakened, but as the commercial vehicle market dominated by fuel vehicles enters the adjustment period, new energy commercial vehicles are expected to further accelerate penetration. Zhong Weiping, secretary general of the Commercial Vehicle Professional Committee of the China Automobile Dealers Association, said in an interview with the first financial reporter that China's new automobile energy is started from commercial vehicles, and in the whole process, because commercial vehicles are affected by operating costs, the ups and downs will be relatively large. With the "3060 double carbon target", the pace of new energy for commercial vehicles will once again enter the track of rapid development, and the penetration speed will even exceed that of passenger cars. He expects that the penetration rate of new energy commercial vehicles will reach 20% in 2024 or even by the end of 2013.
"In the process of the development of new energy commercial vehicles, some of the bad behavior of some previous enterprises will be gradually purified, and the future development will still rely on strength and comprehensive solution capabilities to obtain the recognition of the real market, rather than cheating a little financial funds." We should focus on products, service capabilities and finance. Zhong Weiping said that in the process of new energy for commercial vehicles, the change of fuel type will have a subversive change in the pattern of China's commercial vehicles.
Although Luo Huanta, founder of Dadong Times Think Tank (TD), is also optimistic about the development prospects of new energy commercial vehicles, he believes that the market demand for new energy buses is different from the situation of passenger cars, and it is staged. Previously, subsidies amplified the demand of the market, after several years of adjustment, the new energy commercial vehicle market in 2021 is gradually returning to the normal stage, but mainly pure electric trucks are growing faster, new energy bus sales are still declining, especially plug-in hybrid buses fell very badly. The degree of electrification of buses has been high, and the future market space is relatively limited.
In recent years, even the top companies such as Yutong and BYD have experienced a decline in sales of new energy commercial vehicles due to a sharp decline in subsidies and intensified market competition, and have declined for many years. According to the production and sales data express released by Yutong and BYD, the commercial vehicle sales of the two companies fell by 36.20% and 21.17% respectively in January this year.
It is not easy to gain a foothold in a rapidly volatile market. Yinlong, which has squeezed into the top three sales of new energy buses, second only to Yutong Bus and BYD, has also seen a sharp turn in business conditions in recent years, frequently involved in negative news such as arrears of payment, fraudulent compensation, suspension of work, and layoffs. Last year, Gree Electric Appliances acquired 30.47% of the equity of Yinlong New Energy for 1.83 billion yuan through judicial auction public bidding, and then Yinlong changed its name to Gree Titanium. Whether Gree Titanium, which is supported by Gree Electric Appliances, can make a comeback, there are different voices in the industry. The Five Continents Dragon, which had already fallen, was considered to have little chance of standing up in the absence of a powerful external force to rescue them at present.