Evergrande Automobile, once again confused?
Text/Ni Haifeng
On March 21, China Evergrande (03333. HK), Evergrande Automobile (00708. HK) and Evergrande Property (06666.HK) announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that they would briefly stop trading from 9:00 a.m. As a result, all Structured Products relating to the Company will also be temporarily suspended for trading at the same time. The reason for the suspension is to be announced.
As of the close of Hong Kong stocks on March 18, China Evergrande closed at HK$1.650, up 8.55%, Evergrande Automobile closed at HK$3.50, up 12.82%, and Evergrande Property closed at HK$2.300, up 2.68%.
Generally speaking, a short suspension means that something big has happened to Evergrande Group, and before the official announcement of the news, only the most core people inside know what is happening. However, this news has caused speculation among many netizens, and the brain-opening melon eating masses have even rumored that "Evergrande Group is ready to declare bankruptcy" and Evergrande Automobile has "found a takeover party".
The only way to uncover the truth is to wait, but we can take this opportunity to review the fateful Evergrande Automobile.
In June 2016, "Evergrande Real Estate Group Co., Ltd." was renamed "China Evergrande Group", from the name to the real estate, which can be seen as the starting point for Evergrande to officially open its business transformation. At this time, Evergrande Group was full of ambition, because the group was listed in the world's top 500 for the first time, and three years later, it jumped to 138, becoming one of the fastest-improving enterprises in the world's top 500 list.
According to the planning of Xu Jiayin, the head of Evergrande at that time, Evergrande Group will expand from the original single real estate to "food, clothing, housing, cultural tourism and health care", and the "line" is the Evergrande Automobile we want to talk about today.
Why does Evergrande want to build cars?
There are three reasons for this:
New energy vehicles are industries that protect the environment and benefit mankind;
The new energy vehicle market is huge. Xu Jiayin once said, "We think the automobile industry may be a scale of several trillion yuan in 5-10 years, and it is a large industry of tens of trillions in the world." ”
New energy vehicles contain huge business opportunities, which is in line with Evergrande's long-term goal of diversified development and striving to become a century-old store.
In the simple and crude description of Boss Xu, it is "good", "big", "business opportunity".
In fact, today's young people are not necessarily clear, as early as the end of the 1990s, Xu Jiayin's early days of entrepreneurship, private enterprises that completed the original accumulation of capital decided to enter the car market after seeing the huge potential and rich returns of the automobile market.
At that time, there were Brands such as Chunlan, Midea, Duckling, Bird, Oaks, Xia Xin, BYD, Geely, etc., and who survived in the end, you should be very clear. It may be the first time that the car went into the sea, planting a seed of car building in the heart of Boss Xu, so after 20 years, Evergrande Group, which has money and strength, officially joined.
However, Evergrande's routine is something we never expected. Want to build a car, first of all, to solve the problem of production qualifications and production capacity, but Xu Boss did not take the usual road, in the case of no substantive approval procedures, Evergrande Automobile held a high-profile press conference to announce its entry into the automobile industry.
In January 2019, Xu Jiayin took Suning CEO Zhang Jindong to the Swedish NEVS R&D Center for a visit, and then acquired Mini Minor Limited, the parent company of NEVS, for $930 million.
NEVS acquired the bankrupt Swedish Saab Automobile in 2012 and developed electric vehicles on the basis of saab automobile technology. Of course, NEVS indirectly held 50% of the equity of Guoneng Automobile, and Guoneng Automobile was one of the ten enterprises with "double qualifications" for new energy vehicles at that time. After some capital operation, Guoneng Automobile became a wholly-owned subsidiary of NEVS, and the problem of Evergrande Automobile's car manufacturing qualification was easily solved.
The same way also appears in the field of various subdivisions of Evergrande Automobile's parts suppliers, including chassis, batteries, motors, electronic controls and other core systems, through the "buy, buy and buy" behavior of spending money, Evergrande Automobile has obtained the car-making supply chain system that other car companies covet at that time.
In boss Xu's values, starting from scratch is too laborious, buying is earning, the price is not a problem! Under this line of thinking, Germany's EDAG, Austria's AVL, Canada's MAGNA, South Korea's SK, and even the domestic Tencent and Baidu have begun to talk with Evergrande Automobile, so in the case of not building a car, evergrande automobile's market value rushed to the first place in China.
"There is no wife in the wife cake, there is no husband and wife in the husband and wife lung slices, why does Evergrande Automobile have a car?" This was the words of netizens who ridiculed Evergrande Automobile at that time, and they did not expect a word to become a slur.
Although these powerful partners have been invited at a high price, how to efficiently integrate them and create a perfect new energy vehicle is not something that can be done with just spending money.
In August 2020, Evergrande's new energy vehicle brand "Hengchi" turned out to be born. Subsequently, the first phase of Hengchi's 6 models was officially released, completing the full coverage from A-class to D-class, covering the sedan, coupe, SUV, MPV and crossover markets. In September, Evergrande Automobile released the Hengchi logo.
To know that Tesla has been busy for 18 years, it has only been able to get the 4 models on sale, Hengchi released 6 new cars in one go, and the ambition can be seen. However, the clear-eyed people know at a glance that the model with such a casual shape design is definitely not from the hands of the zheng'er Bajing car designer, and sure enough, at the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2021, Hengchi Automobile was exposed to the exhibition cars on the booth are "shells", because two people can easily lift one.
Watch him build a tall building, watch him entertain guests, and watch him collapse.
As soon as the Shanghai Auto Show passed, Evergrande Group was deeply involved in a storm of thunderstorms, with debts of nearly 2 trillion yuan, more than 570 billion yuan of borrowing alone, and commercial tickets waiting for maturity and settlement of up to 200 billion yuan, which seemed to have become a huge dangerous building. At the same time, Evergrande Automobile, which is waiting to be fed, has naturally been seriously impacted.
Surrounded by a series of negative news such as unpaid wages and layoffs, Hengchi Automobile, which was thought to be completely cool, still brought us surprises. At the beginning of this year, Evergrande officially confirmed that its first model, Hengchi 5, was officially rolled off the production line, and released an official promotional video on January 12. In the 353rd batch of automobile declaration information released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Hengchi 5 appeared again.
However, even if the first mass-produced model is officially rolled off the production line, it is still a long way from true mass production. This time, evergrande automobile's Hong Kong stock suspension has cast a haze on its comeback.
Waiting for what kind of ending Hengchi will be, in a few days it will be completely revealed!