The recent state of Baoneng Automobile can probably be described by the three words "dramatic".
A service announcement issued by the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court on March 17 put the entry "Baoneng Yao Zhenhua's whereabouts unknown" on the hot search. The delivery announcement mainly involves the financial loan contract dispute between the Development Zone Branch of Bank of Guangzhou Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Baoshi Logistics Co., Ltd., Yao Zhenhua, Shenzhen Baoneng Investment Group Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Jushenghua Co., Ltd., and the contract dispute involves a loan principal of 700 million yuan.
For Yao Zhenhua's "disappearance", Baoneng Automobile officials quickly debunked the rumors on March 22, saying that Yao Zhenhua also went to Baoneng Automobile's Shenzhen factory the day before for work inspection.
On the other hand, the car-making projects of Baoneng and Qoros in Kunming, Yunnan Have just been removed by the Provincial Development and Reform Commission, and on the back foot, China Construction Third Bureau and One Company officially announced that the Guangzhou Baoneng New Energy Automobile Industrial Park project has entered the sprint stage.
Although the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court has withdrawn the announcement on "unknown whereabouts" and the Baoneng New Energy Guangzhou project has also shown an atmosphere of normal operation, the outside world's doubts about Baoneng Automobile cannot be stopped, or it is intensifying.
Yao Zhenhua's face, covering his ears and stealing bells
According to the announcement issued by the Yunnan Provincial Development and Reform Commission on April 6, the reason why the Baoneng Kunming project was removed was because it had not started construction for two years.
In May and August 2018, Kunming Baoneng Automobile Co., Ltd. and Qoros Automobile Co., Ltd. (Kunming) Branch respectively filed the "Kunming Baoneng New Energy Automobile Parts Production Project" and "Qoros Automobile Co., Ltd. (Kunming) Branch Construction Project" through the online approval and supervision platform for investment projects in Yunnan Province.
Around that year, it was the stage when Baoneng made a big move into the automotive industry.
In March 2017, Baoneng established Baoneng Automobile Group Co., Ltd. for 1 billion yuan. After that, Baoneng acquired a 51% stake in Qoros For 6.63 billion yuan and a 50% stake in Changan PSA for 1.63 billion yuan.
Smashing the treasure energy of building a car with heavy gold, it is logical to frantically take the land in the name of building a car. In addition to Kunming, Baoneng has invested in the construction of new energy vehicles and parts production bases in Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Xi'an, Shenzhen, Guiyang, Kunshan and other places in recent years. According to incomplete statistics, Baoneng car manufacturing base and project covers an area of nearly 9,000 mu, with a total area of 4,574,400 square meters, of which 81,500 square meters of residential land, with an investment of nearly 100 billion yuan.
When the Xi'an base was put into production, Yao Zhenhua, chairman of Baoneng Group, even boasted that Haikou would take 10-15 years to become a world-class automobile manufacturer, and Baoneng had developed three major vehicle platforms, a variety of products, dozens of products under development, fully covering cars, SUVs, MPVs and other models.
The idea of building a car is very full, but the reality is that Baoneng's overall car manufacturing progress has slowed down more than one beat, and the self-developed electric model has not yet landed.
In July 2020, Baoneng's first model, the Qoros 7, was officially launched, but the sales after that were disastrous. In 2021, Baoneng Automobile's luxury intelligent new energy vehicle brand BAO is late in coming. In January this year, Baoneng Automobile released two new cars, of which the BAO brand's BAO GX5 will roll off the production line in July this year and be mass-produced at the Guangzhou base, and QOROS 6 of the Qoros brand is expected to be mass-produced and listed in 2022.
At the same time that the product has been delayed in mass production, Baoneng's large-scale inaction in taking only land has also attracted widespread attention. In November 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a document requiring local development and reform commissions to report on new energy vehicle investment projects since 2017, which named Baoneng Automobile. At that time, Baoneng Automobile also wrote back to admit its false publicity and water injection of production capacity.
According to people familiar with the matter, Baoneng's Xi'an base has produced zero production since it was put into operation in July 2020. And Baoneng publicly claimed that the first phase of production capacity of 500,000 vehicles, investment of 40 billion yuan, the actual first phase of the landing is only 5 billion yuan, the investment has become 9.8 billion yuan. Other bases that have not yet been put into production, in the case of the Kunming base, may have roughly the same outcome.
The inside of Baoneng car is full of holes
Although Baoneng has fallen into the dilemma of building a car, Yao Zhenhua, as the leader, is still light on the surface.
On March 22, Yao Zhenhua was interviewed by CCTV, saying that this time Baoneng encountered some temporary liquidity difficulties. The loan contract with the Bank of Guangzhou is about 700 million yuan, and some interest is owed, and the two sides can quickly reach a settlement.
When referring to "700 million yuan of interest", Yao Zhenhua described it particularly easily. In the official rumor-busting article released on the same day, not only the pictures of Yao Zhenhua appearing in Baoneng Automobile's Shenzhen factory inspection were put on display, but also mentioned that the arrival rate of the factory on March 21 was 99.4%, and the four major process workshops and functional departments have been fully resumed.
What Baoneng Auto presented itself was a sign of everything that was in order and full of blood. But what is officially shown is not necessarily the truth. As the outside world knows, in the process of slow progress in Baoneng car manufacturing, Baoneng Automobile has been full of problems inside, including the biggest problem of people and money.
Some legal sources said that the reason why the court's service announcement indicates that the defendant's "whereabouts are unknown" shows that the court has exhausted the methods it can use, but it is still unable to contact the defendant, and if the defendant contacts the court to obtain relevant documents, the court will withdraw the service announcement published on the internet.
Therefore, it is not excluded that Yao Zhenhua will not accept summonses through "litigation skills" to achieve the purpose of delaying the litigation time. This speculation is not unfounded.
Judging from the data investigated by the enterprise, Yao Zhenhua's personal restriction on high consumption information and the information of the executor have reached 20, and all of them occurred after September 2021.
Baoneng Automobile's current judicial cases have reached 91; 12 judgment debtors, with a total amount of 4.242 billion yuan; and 32 judgment documents, with the above amount reaching 11.0392 million yuan.
In November 2021, Yao Zhenhua also issued a letter to all employees of the group, saying that the company was facing a liquidity crisis that had never been seen in 29 years, clarifying the current situation that Baoneng was facing a debt crisis.
Behind the financial constraints and the slow progress of car manufacturing, it is the employees of Baoneng Department who are directly affected.
In the official social account of Baoneng Automobile, the comments that can be seen are full of reprimands from netizens, and the most asked questions are related to Baoneng's unpaid wages and suspension of social security.
In February this year, all employees of Baoneng Automobile disclosed the recent salary payment of Baoneng to the outside world with a "letter to Chairman Yao". Among them, "the salary payment status in 2021 is that the salary in July and August 2021 has not been paid; the salary will be paid 10% in September; 3,000 yuan will be paid in November; and 3,000 yuan will be paid in December." The January 2022 salary has not yet been paid."
Insiders revealed that at present, some employees have received salaries, and there are still arrears of social security unpaid. As of now, those who have not received wages are most likely employees in the automotive sector.
Putting aside the current fierce external competition, only from the perspective of the internal events of Baoneng, the crisis of Baoneng Automobile in 2022 has not been lifted. The problem of unpaid wages and debt collection needs to be solved urgently, although there is already a trend of building factories and resuming work, but whether this time can achieve a real mass production car off the production line is still unknown. The question in front of Baoneng also includes whether there is still room for burning money if it continues to invest in car-making projects.