Auto-First | Sun Jinfeng
If as of today (March 31), the bankruptcy and restructuring of the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup has not yet found investors, then the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup will face a more difficult situation next.
More precisely, it is not only joint ventures, such as Shenyang Jinbei and Renault Automobile. Shenyang Jinbei is a high-quality asset of Brilliance Group, once the boss of light vehicles, where will it go in the future? For Renault, Dongfeng Renault has been dissolved, after withdrawing from the Chinese passenger car market, the weights are pressed on commercial vehicles, once the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup is bankrupt, Renault will lose another arm in China, then, what is Left of Renault in China...
In fact, compared with the company's plight, the problems faced by the employees of the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup are more realistic. Companies filed for bankruptcy reorganization, and what they had to solve was the most pressing meal problem.
A person close to Renault Brilliance told the media that at present, Renault Brilliance has terminated the employment contract of the incumbent employees, and can voluntarily go through the resignation procedures without objection before March 18. "Before, Renault Brilliance's employees have almost gone, and now what is left is going through the formalities one after another."
It is no accident that the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup has come to this step today. In recent years, the merger and reorganization of car companies under the tide of change in the automotive industry has become a general trend of development, and it is also common for those enterprises that cannot keep up with the situation and have slow transformation to be eliminated, such as Huatai, Zotye, Lifan, FAW Mazda...
When the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup was established in 2017, it was indeed placed high hopes by the industry. Jinbei is a best-selling brand of Light Vehicles in China, a household name for more than 30 years, and has accompanied generations of Chinese people on the road to prosperity, accumulating 2 million users, and has also become the most valuable brand asset in brilliance. With a history of 122 years, Renault is a best-selling car brand in the world, especially in Europe, with the most advanced technology in the field of commercial vehicles. With the endorsement of the Jinbei brand and the support of Renault technology, Renault Brilliance Plans to launch a full range of light commercial vehicles by 2023, including 5 models covering small, medium and large vans (H-Van, M-Van, S-Van).
If the vision of the two parties continues to advance, the future in the field of light commercial vehicles should be promising. But reality often backfires.
For a long period of cooperation between the two sides, the promotion of new technologies and new products was slow, resulting in missing the best period of occupying the market, and SAIC Maxus, Jiangling Motors and so on came behind.
Auto-First learned that in the 4 years since the establishment of the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup, a total of two new cars have been launched. One is a 7-seat SUV Guanjing, listed in April 2019, priced in the range of 70,000-100,000 yuan, although the cost performance is super high, but the brand influence is limited, and this car has few sales. The other is that on November 24, 2020, three years after the establishment of the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup, the first commercial vehicle product representing the crystallization of Renault and Jinbei cooperation, the Jinbei Sea Lion King, was launched. A more commercial look, a super wide magic space, a new and upgraded safety performance, and a more energy-efficient power system... On the basis of inheriting the traditional advantages of Jinbei light passengers, Jinbei Sea Lion King, which was injected with Renault genes, made every effort to explore the light passenger market segment and once won the recognition of the market.
But it is a pity that the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup did not take advantage of the chase, and the two light commercial vehicles of the Renault brand in Europe, "MASTER" and "TRAFIC", did not achieve domestic production. Relying on the main model of the Jinbei Hiace King alone, the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup will sell about 23,000 vehicles in 2020, down 42.8% year-on-year.
Until December 2021, there were Employees of Renault Brilliance Golden Cup who broke the news that the company has begun to suspend the payment of wages, and social security has also been suspended. Its CEO Guillaume Sicard has left China to return to the UK with new appointments.
According to the relevant information of the National Enterprise Bankruptcy and Reorganization Case Information Network, Renault Brilliance Gold Cup issued an announcement on January 14, 2022 to recruit reorganization investors, and the deadline is March 31. According to the announcement of the public recruitment of audit and appraisal institutions, as of October 31, 2021, Renault Brilliance had total book assets of 3.727 billion yuan and total book liabilities of 4.308 billion yuan, and Renault Brilliance informed the manager that it had a large number of off-the-books liabilities.
There are seven conditions to be met by Renault Brilliance restructuring investors, including "the principle manager does not limit the industry engaged in by the intended investor, but the intended investor should have the operation management ability and corporate governance ability compatible with Renault Brilliance's existing business", "two or more intentional investors can form a consortium to participate in the investment, of which each intended investor should meet all the recruitment conditions", "The intended investor to participate in the restructuring investment of Renault Brilliance must pay an application deposit of RMB 10 million", etc. In addition, qualified prospective investors are required to submit Renault Brilliance's restructuring investment plan to the Manager by March 15, 2022, and the Manager will review the restructuring investment plan.
At present, since Brilliance China is in a state of reorganization, and the development of Renault Group in the Chinese market is not optimistic, it is impossible to expect Brilliance and Renault to increase their capital. It has been several months since the news of the restructuring of the Renault Brilliance Gold Cup was released, and as of now, there is no news from the "receiver", which is not a good signal. Once the Reynolds Brilliance Gold Cup is restructured and aborted, it is even worse for the Gold Cup brand and Renault.
For Jinbei, the brand value of the Jinbei brand for more than 30 years will inevitably be damaged, and Renault, which is expected to gain a firm foothold in the commercial vehicle field in China, will also lose important support. The Renault car that only has one card of Jiangling Renault left in China is not far from withdrawing from China. (Some of the pictures are from the Internet)