22/03/29
Lead
Although its own brands have begun to grow, Beijing Benz is still the top pillar of Beijing Automobile in terms of revenue.
Author 丨 Deng Yongtuo
Responsible editor 丨 Xu Jinkai
Edit 丨 Chic
The gross profit of Beijing Benz has declined, the gross loss of BAIC Motor's own brands is expanding, and the significance of Beijing Benz to Beijing Auto is getting bigger and bigger.
Recently, Beijing Automotive Co., Ltd. (01958. HK, hereinafter referred to as BAIC Motor) released its 2021 financial report. According to the financial report, in 2021, THE OPERATING INCOME OF BAIC Motor was 175.916 billion yuan (RMB, the same unit below), a slight decrease of 0.6% year-on-year, and the performance announcement showed that the decline in revenue was due to the decrease in gross profit of Beijing Benz and the increase in gross loss of Beijing brands.
According to the data, in 2021, the gross profit of Beijing Automobile was 37.643 billion yuan, down 10.67% year-on-year; the annual net profit was 15.151 billion yuan, an increase of 16.95% year-on-year; and the net profit attributable to the company's equity holders was 3.858 billion yuan, an increase of 90.17% year-on-year. In 2021, BAIC Motor's four vehicle business segments sold a total of 1.031 million vehicles, down 11.8% year-on-year.
Affected by the dual impact of the epidemic and chip shortage, most of BAIC's brands have declined to varying degrees. Among them, the joint venture brand camp Beijing Benz sales of 561,000 units, down 8.2% year-on-year, Beijing Hyundai wholesale sales of 361,000 units, vehicle terminal sales of 384,000 units, down 19.1% year-on-year. Fujian Benz sales hit a record high of 37,000 units, up 24.3% year-on-year. The wholesale sales of Beijing brands in the independent brand camp were 72,000 units, down 12.2% year-on-year.
1
Autonomy still requires effort
In recent years, BAIC Motor has taken its own brands as the focus of its development and accelerated its transformation to "electrification, intelligence and networking". According to the data of the Association, the sales of new energy models of the Beijing brand increased by 72.9% year-on-year, and the sales of the main models EU5 and EU5 PLUS continued to increase compared with the previous year, and in 2021, the annual sales of EU5 exceeded 35,000 units.
Although sales have improved, they still contribute little to revenue. In 2021, the revenue related to Beijing brands reached 7.949 billion yuan, an increase of 9.2% year-on-year. Affected by the decline in sales and model changes, the gross profit of Beijing brand products decreased from negative 3.666 billion yuan in 2020 to negative 4.513 billion yuan in 2021. If Beijing Benz is excluded, Beijing Automobile will still be in a state of loss.
Of course, compared with gross profit, net profit is more able to reflect the relationship between Beijing Benz and BEIJING Motor, but BAIC Motor does not disclose the net profit performance of related brands. However, according to the announcement previously released by BAIC Motor, the profit generated by BAIC Motor's continuing operations after tax in 2021 was 1.868 billion yuan, and Beijing Benz was 3.205 billion yuan. This means that if you exclude the profit of Beijing Benz, the loss of other businesses of Baic Motor is 1.337 billion yuan.
For this year's development, BAIC Motor needs to form a new breakthrough in its own brand. The Rubik's Cube, which will be launched in the first half of this year, will be one of the most important models of the Beijing brand, which is equipped with Huawei's smart cockpit - Hongmeng car machine, which is the first SUV defined by Beijing Automobile in all scenarios.
Although from the perspective of product strength, Rubik's Cube has a good strength, coupled with the blessing of Huawei's label, it may attract new cars
Quite a high degree of attention, but the competition in the automobile market is becoming more and more fierce, and whether the Rubik's Cube can successfully break through must be tested by the market.
2
The game of profit
Beijing Benz's revenue in 2021 was 167.966 billion yuan, down 1.0% year-on-year, accounting for 95.48% of the total revenue of BAIC Group, a slight decline from 95.9% last year. Gross profit fell from 45.977 billion yuan in 2020 to 42.255 billion yuan in 2021, down 8.1% year-on-year. The gross profit margin decreased from 27.1% in 2020 to 25.2% in 2021, mainly due to the decline in sales and the impact of changes in the structure of models in the process of new energy transformation.
As in 2020, Beijing Benz is still the largest source of revenue for BAIC, and other sectors of BAIC Motor are still in a state of loss and have not shown a trend of improvement. Supported by the continuous income of Beijing Benz, BAIC Motor can be said to have been "lying and winning" in recent years.
However, with the successful finalization of bmw brilliance equity changes as a precedent, Mercedes-Benz may also want to gain more dominance in Beijing Benz, and news about the changes in related stock ratios has been frequently exposed. Although Mercedes-Benz and BAIC Group have denied it, there is also news that the negotiations between Mercedes-Benz and BAIC Group on the former's proposed increase in the share ratio of Beijing Benz have been basically completed and are scheduled to be announced within this year.
However, Beijing Benz is the most fundamental source of revenue and "profit cow" of BAIC Motor, which has a decisive impact on the financial performance of BAIC Group, once Mercedes-Benz Group holds Beijing Benz, Beijing Benz will no longer be included in the financial statements as a major sector of Beijing Automobile, which will greatly affect the book data of Beijing Automobile, and will also weaken the profit contribution of Beijing Benz to Beijing Automobile.
It is worth mentioning that in order to improve the level of profitability, BAIC Group announced on December 13, 2021 that it increased its stake in Mercedes-Benz Group to 9.98%, becoming the largest shareholder of Mercedes-Benz. According to the 2021 Mercedes-Benz financial report, excluding the already independent Daimler truck and bus business segment, Mercedes-Benz achieved a net profit increase of 255% year-on-year to 14.2 billion euros, while the 9.98% BAIC Group could receive 524.3 million euros, or about 3.7 billion yuan.
In order to hedge the impact of the Mercedes-Benz Group's control of Beijing Benz, BAIC Group may once again increase its stake in the Mercedes-Benz Group to more than 12%, and the increase plan has also been supported by the Mercedes-Benz side. Although neither side has indicated any further intentions for the relevant equity, the game between them seems to have already begun.
For BAIC Motor, whether it is an independent brand or a joint venture brand, it needs to further seize the domestic market. In the face of the pressure of new energy transformation, the performance of Beijing Benz in the EQ series is not satisfactory, while BMW Brilliance and FAW Audi have launched new models in the next step, and the competition in the future luxury car market will still be full of challenges.
As for Beijing Hyundai, Elantra has given the brand new hope, but more efforts are needed on the road to recovery, and perhaps only after the launch of the new electrification series IONIQ can we see a turnaround. In any case, BAIC Motor needs to improve its sense of crisis in order to maintain its development position in the new round of market change.
Deng Yongtuo
Not a big problem, there is no fear of cars.