WM is suspicious and suspended, and only pays middle and high-level salaries! The "army of debt collectors" captured the official Weibo
Only three months after the high-profile announcement of the full resumption of work and production, WM was once again exposed to a suspension. On June 27, Feiling Automobile learned from people familiar with the matter that after previously narrowing the scope of payroll, WM suspended wages again this month. It is reported. At present, only the middle and senior management of the director and above are paid, and everyone else is suspended. Up to now, WM has not replied to the news for the time being.
At the same time, the official Weibo of WM Motor and the comment area of WM CEO Shen Hui's personal Weibo have also been occupied by netizens who "collect debts". Among them, there are both netizens urging back wages and supplementary payment of provident funds, and netizens urging WM AAP repair and vehicle after-sales problems; There are also netizens who are concerned about WM's product promotion. At present, WM Motor and Shen Hui's Weibo have closed Weibo comments.
According to previous media reports, the payday of WM is the 25th of every month. And this is not the first time that WM has been exposed to arrears of employees' salaries. In November last year, WM reduced operating costs through a series of financial measures such as a 50% salary reduction for management and a 30% salary reduction for other employees. In mid-February this year, due to the suspension of wages and arrears by WM, more than 200 employees of the Huanggang factory in Hubei Province carried out collective rights protection. According to media reports at the time, in December last year, employees' wages were only about 500 yuan.
Subsequently, on the evening of February 24, WM issued an internal letter for the first time to talk positively about the company's recent large-scale salary cuts and employee social security cuts. In the internal letter, WM said that it would do its best to ensure the salary and treatment of those who resumed work and production, and the rest of the personnel were arranged to take unpaid leave. The term "unpaid leave" also caused heated discussions at the time.
After a series of shutdowns and unpaid wages, WM suddenly announced on March 7 that it would "fully resume work and production", and said that in view of the inconvenience of some users due to the tight supply chain in the early stage, it is urgently allocating relevant spare parts to meet the needs of users as soon as possible. In addition, WM announced that more than 100 dealer stores across the country will gradually resume normal services to solve various problems of car purchase and use for users.
For the sudden resumption of work and production and the recovery of the dealer system, many people still have raised questions, such as whether there are enough funds to support this practice? When will arrears of employee salaries and supplier payments be reimbursed?
After the release of these two "good news", there was little good news about WM. Instead, bad news followed. On March 29, WM Motor Manufacturing Wenzhou Co., Ltd. was frozen equity of about 4.04 billion yuan; on May 15, Chengdu Weihong Real Estate Co., Ltd., which is 51.25% owned by WM Motor Technology Group Co., Ltd., added new equity freezing information, freezing the amount of equity of 12.3 million yuan; On May 25, Zhengweima Motor Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. added equity freezing information, the executor was WM Motor Technology Group Co., Ltd., with a frozen equity amount of 22.485 million yuan; on June 15, WM New Energy Automobile Sales (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. was executed for more than 2.8876 million yuan.
In addition, in early May, according to Hainan Special Zone News, WM Motor 4S stores in Haikou City, Hainan Province were all closed. Not only are there constant problems with the vehicle, but there is also no after-sales service and no accessories, resulting in more than 2,000 car owners who are difficult to maintain and repair.
As one of the richest new forces in car manufacturing, it is now mired in a shortage of funds. According to the prospectus of WM Motor's Hong Kong stocks, by the end of 2021, WM Motor has completed 9 rounds of financing, with a cumulative amount of about 18 billion yuan. From the perspective of total financing, WM Motor's financing amount is not less than "Wei Xiaoli" and Zerorun. Before listing, the total financing of "Wei Xiaoli" and Zerorun was 15 billion yuan, 18.8 billion yuan, 12 billion yuan and 11.2 billion yuan respectively.
Looking back at WM's car manufacturing road, it is clear that the heavy investment such as the early factory has become a burden on its way forward. Shen Hui's attitude towards the factory has also changed from the initial "if I choose OEM production, I will not sleep every day" to "Standing on the current reflection, we have invested a little too much in the two factories, and almost half of the funds in the early stage have been spent on the whole car factory." "According to the annual production capacity of 150,000 vehicles in the Huanggang plant and the actual production tasks of more than 10,000 vehicles, basically the factory only needs to be opened for a total of 24 days a year. And the cost of these factories is ultimately converted into the loss cost of selling cars.
In addition to building factories, WM actually does not spend much on R&D investment. According to the prospectus data, from 2019 to 2021, WM Motor's R&D expenditure was 893 million yuan, 992 million yuan and 981 million yuan, respectively, and the total R&D expenditure in three years was 2.866 billion yuan. Taking 2019 as an example, the R&D investment of "Wei Xiaoli" was 4.428 billion yuan, 2.07 billion yuan and 1.17 billion yuan respectively. Later, the result was that the three new products and new technologies of "Wei Xiaoli" continued, while WM's new cars still used the first-generation platform architecture. The backwardness of product strength has further affected its market competitiveness and formed a vicious circle.
For WM, how to solve the problem of funds has become the key to survival. In order to solve the funding problem, WM has been hitting the IPO since 2021, shifting from the science and technology innovation board and Hong Kong stocks to US stocks, and finally targeting Hong Kong stocks, which can be said to be the most tortuous road to listing among the new forces in car manufacturing. However, unfortunately, Zerorun completed its listing, and WM still failed to pass the hearing, and finally chose to land on Hong Kong stocks through a backdoor.
In January this year, Apollo Mobility said it acquired WM for US$2.02 billion and settled it by allocating 28.825 billion shares at HK$0.55 per share. After the completion of the transaction, WM Motor will hold 31.1 billion shares of Apollo Mobility, accounting for 68.26%, becoming the largest shareholder of Apollo Mobility. According to the previous forecast, WM Motor will be listed on the Hong Kong stock market in the second quarter of this year. At that time, the pressure on WM's capital reserves may be reduced. At present, the time has reached the end of June, and there is no new news about WM's IPO. This means that WM's time-to-market will also be pushed back.