After betting on the new energy heavy truck business, the development of Hanma Technology has not been smooth. On January 27, Hanma Technology announced that after preliminary calculations by the financial department, it is expected that the company's operating performance in 2023 will be a loss, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies will be -1.07 billion yuan to -870 million yuan.
In the announcement, Hanma Technology said that since 2020, the company has faced long-term losses and high debt pressure due to factors such as intensified market competition in the domestic heavy truck industry. At present, the company has obviously lost the possibility of liquidity, so it has made the choice to apply for reorganization.
Hanma Technology, formerly known as Valin Xingma, is a domestic enterprise engaged in the production and research and development of heavy-duty trucks, heavy-duty special vehicles and core components, and the company was listed on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2003. Although Valin Xingma has a certain reputation and share in the domestic heavy truck market, its performance has been poor for a long time. In 2020, Valin Xingma's net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was -490 million yuan.
In July 2020, Geely Commercial Vehicle Group became the controlling shareholder of Valin Xingma at a consideration of 435 million yuan. In December 2020, Valin Xingma changed its name to Hanma Technology. The acquisition of Valin Xingma is another landmark event for Geely to enter the commercial vehicle industry after the acquisition of Dongfeng Nanchong in 2016.
After being acquired by Geely, new energy heavy trucks have become the focus of Hanma Technology's layout. In June 2022, Hanma Technology announced that it plans to stop selling traditional fuel vehicles by the end of 2025, and will fully shift its R&D and sales direction to new energy and clean energy powered models.
However, Geely's entry into the company did not reverse the decline in the performance of Hanma Technology. In 2021 and 2022, the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of Hanma Technology will be -1.336 billion yuan and -1.466 billion yuan respectively, and the loss will continue to expand and expand. In 2023, Hanma Technology expects the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies to be -1.07 billion yuan to -870 million yuan, and the net assets attributable to shareholders of listed companies are expected to be -928 million yuan to -728 million yuan, which is insolvent.
Despite the poor financial condition, as stated in the announcement of Hanma Technology, the company has the value of reorganization.
According to the production and sales report, in 2023, the cumulative sales of Hanma Technology's medium and heavy trucks (including incomplete vehicles) will be 7,876, a year-on-year increase of 32.73%. Among them, the sales volume of electric medium and heavy trucks was 3,276, a year-on-year increase of 5.37%.
However, due to the development of new energy heavy trucks relying more on financial subsidies and local planning, the current marketization level in this field is still relatively limited. According to the insurance data, the cumulative sales of the national new energy heavy truck market in 2023 will be 34,200 units, a year-on-year increase of 36%, and the new energy penetration rate of the heavy truck market will be 5.6%, an increase of only 0.3 percentage points compared with 2022.
Obviously, new energy heavy trucks are a field with broad development prospects, but they are still in their infancy.
At the beginning of 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other eight departments made it clear that they would launch the pilot work of the comprehensive electrification of public sector vehicles nationwide, with a pilot period of 2023-2025. In November 2023, the list of the first batch of pilot cities was announced, and 15 cities, including Beijing, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Changchun, and Yinchuan, launched the pilot zone for the full electrification of vehicles in the public sector, encouraging the exploration and formation of a number of experiences and models that can be replicated and promoted. Sanitation and freight are important application scenarios of heavy truck vehicles, the current level of electrification is not high, and under the guidance of the goal of comprehensive electrification in the public domain, it is inevitable to accelerate the replacement of electrified products for heavy trucks.
As an important new energy heavy-duty truck business segment of Geely Commercial Vehicle, it has great prospects in the future. From this point of view, the application for reorganization may not be Geely's real desire to give up supporting Hanma Technology, but to use the legal process of reorganization to help Hanma Technology get out of financial difficulties and restore profitability.
Of course, if the draft reorganization plan of Hanma Technology cannot be voted and approved by the creditors' meeting, or the reorganization plan cannot be approved by the court, or the debtor cannot implement or does not implement the reorganization plan, the court will rule to terminate the reorganization procedure of Hanma Technology and declare Hanma Technology bankrupt.