"Core Tips"
For this de-Huawei trademark acquisition, will it be beneficial to the subsequent development of Cialis, or will it affect the sales of the Wenjie series?
Author | Zhu Xiaoyu
Edit | Xing Yun
Yu Chengdong, who no longer mentions "far ahead", has been much more low-key recently.
However, recently, Cialis announced that it will acquire 919 series of text and graphic trademarks such as Wenjie held by Huawei, as well as 44 related design patents.
Sailis is Huawei's first in-depth partner in the cross-border automotive industry, and the joint work of the two parties is the most influential representative of the smart car model promoted by Yu Chengdong. Now, Cialis wants to spend 2.5 billion yuan to buy intangible assets such as the Wenjie trademark from Huawei, whether it is to convey Huawei's determination not to make cars to the outside world, or to clarify the boundaries of smart cars, it means that Yu Chengdong has made concessions.
If we add the Xiangjie and Zhijie transferred at the end of May and early June, Huawei has divested three trademarks related to the vehicle business in the past two months. At this point, Huawei no longer has a vehicle brand in its hands.
Cialis said in the announcement that the transfer of the subject matter of the agreement will not affect the cooperation business between the two parties, and the two sides will further deepen the cooperative relationship to help Cialis make and sell good cars.
In other words, the depth of cooperation will not change, but the role of the trademark and patent holder of the "Wenjie" brand has changed from Huawei to Cialis.
According to relevant sources close to Huawei, although the depth of cooperation will not change, the sharing model of the cooperation between the two sides will change, and the cooperation agreement will be re-signed. In the future, Huawei's HarmonyOS Smart Mobility (Smart Car Model) will no longer focus too much on profitability, but will introduce new companies to attract car companies to cooperate and play an exemplary role.
1. Yu Chengdong's concession?
Cialis spent 2.5 billion yuan to buy intangible assets such as trademarks and patents held by Huawei, and according to the agreement, the money must be paid off before December 30, 2024.
In the third-party assessment, the market value of these intangible assets as at 31 May 2024 was $10.23 billion. Cialis is equivalent to a 2.5% discount purchase.
In fact, before the transfer of the trademark "Wenjie", Huawei had already transferred the trademarks of "Xiangjie" and "Zhijie" to BAIC and Chery respectively.
In the widely circulated version, Huawei's six top executives voted on whether to build a car, five people opposed, and only Yu Chengdong advocated building a car. After the vote took effect, Yu Chengdong left a message in Huawei's Voice community, "After a few years, everyone will understand." ”
Now, the stripping of the vehicle trademark means that Huawei is one step further away from making cars, which is undoubtedly a contraction of power and a concession of direction for Yu Chengdong, who firmly supports car manufacturing.
At the beginning of May this year, Yu Chengdong first sat in the position of chairman of the terminal BG that Huawei had "customized" for him, and changed from CEO of the terminal BG to chairman of the terminal BG. Although Yu Chengdong is still the top of the department, he suddenly added the position of chairman and arranged for He Gang to take over as CEO, perhaps because the top management wants to extend the decision-making chain of the terminal BG.
The timing of Yu Chengdong's position adjustment coincides with the M7 Yuncheng traffic accident experienced by Huawei. There has been a lot of speculation about the correlation between the two. In fact, since the accident occurred, the smart car business led by Yu Chengdong has begun to undergo some changes.
On May 20 this year, Yu Chengdong revealed for the first time in an interview with the media that in the first quarter of 2024, Huawei's smart car BU and car BU have all turned losses into profits.
It is worth noting that at this stage, Huawei's circle of friends is still expanding, and the car BU business is still embracing many car companies in a positive and open posture, but the smart car business led by Yu Chengdong is basically no longer expanding. In the future, the smart car business can only seek development in the stock market.
Over the years, Yu Chengdong has become an iconic figure and core promoter of Huawei's automotive business, but Huawei's internal car manufacturing is multi-legged, and Yu Chengdong, who dominates the TOC smart car model, has repeatedly had friction and pull with the company's line because he is too aggressive.
However, according to the above-mentioned people familiar with the matter, in recent months, the priorities of Huawei's two major internal automotive businesses have slowly changed, and Yu Chengdong is not as active as before, both externally and internally, and his style has also become calm from the previous excitement and radicalism.
In the past few years, in order to establish the image of "Bosch", Huawei has always reiterated that it "does not make cars", and Yu Chengdong has also been taking on the role of Huawei's technology "talker" in front of the stage. However, the model of smart cars has always influenced the judgment of automakers. Now, after the crisis, Huawei has concretized the slogan "Don't make cars".
Since the crash, the internal has made measurements and trade-offs in the two major automotive businesses of Hongmeng Zhixing and Chebu. For Huawei, the revenue generated by the smart car business is very weak compared to Huawei's overall brand image, and it has become a top priority for Huawei to divest any business that is deeply tied to car manufacturing.
From Yu Chengdong's point of view, this is the further compression of the space of the route led by himself.
2. Cialis and Huawei re-divided?
As for whether this de-Huawei trademark acquisition is conducive to the subsequent development of Cialis or will affect the sales of the Wenjie series, the two voices in the market are arguing endlessly, and there is no conclusive conclusion.
The only thing that is certain is that Cialis Group can go from an unknown car company to the first place in the market value of China's new car-making forces, which is inseparable from Huawei.
Before cooperating with Huawei in 2021, the annual sales of the Ceris SF5 in 2020 were only 732 units. After joining hands with Huawei, the sales of Celis's cars have been climbing, reaching 75,000 units in 2022 and 151,800 units in 2023, becoming one of the fastest-growing smart electric vehicle brands.
In the first quarter of this year, Cialis achieved a turnaround for the first time. The revenue in the first quarter was 26.561 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 421.76%, the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 220 million yuan, and the gross profit margin in the first quarter increased to 21.5%.
Among the new energy vehicle companies, there are not many that can achieve profitability, except for ideals, Cialis. In fact, the main models launched by these two car companies are comparable competitors in the market, and Li Xiang has also admitted that he has been disabled by the questioning industry.
In the first quarter of 2024, the sales volume of new energy vehicles will reach 95,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 374.77%. During the same period, the ideal sales volume was 80,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 52.9%. In the first half of 2024, Li Auto sold about 189,000 units, and more than 200,000 new energy vehicles were bought in the same period.
Although the sales volume of Cialis exceeded the ideal, its operating cash flow was far from the ideal.
At the end of the first quarter, the balance of cash and cash equivalents was 2.679 billion yuan. During the same period, Ideal still held 98.9 billion yuan in cash reserves, making it the new Chinese car-making force with the most cash.
From a financial point of view, Cialis's cash flow is not optimistic, and it is even only enough to pay the 2.5 billion "Wenjie" trademark fee.
In fact, in recent years, Cialis has cooperated with Huawei, although the sales volume has risen sharply, but a considerable part of the net profit and cash flow have not flowed into Cialis pockets.
A number of media have reported that the profit sharing ratio of vehicle manufacturers such as Huawei and Cialis under the smart selection mode is about 1:9 (excluding software and hardware procurement costs). If you take the 560,000 Wenjie M9 as an example, for every car sold, Huawei can get about 56,000 yuan, of which eighty percent is the distribution fee of Huawei's channel, about 44,800 yuan, and two percent is the technical licensing fee, about 11,200 yuan.
The high pricing is related to Huawei's huge investment in technology and other aspects in the early stage. The higher the price, the higher Huawei's share will be. Yu Chengdong once said in an interview with the interface that the joint development model will leave the majority of profits to car companies. Huawei wants to help car companies sell more cars.
However, in new energy vehicles, losses are the norm, and the 56,000 yuan that Huawei took away has brought a lot of financial pressure to Cialis.
And this time, Cialis took out almost all of its belongings to acquire the "Wenjie" trademark, which can not only help Cialis redefine the division model. In the future, Celis will also have more leading power in the cooperation with Huawei.
According to the above-mentioned people familiar with the matter, "Wenjie" is a high-end brand built by Huawei, and this acquisition is equivalent to a one-time buyout of the ownership of the "Wenjie" brand by Cialis, although the depth of cooperation remains unchanged, but the sharing ratio will definitely be adjusted accordingly, and this part of the income will be reflected in the financial statements. For Cialis, the money saved from each car will add more points to Cialis's financial statements, which can also better reflect Cialis's business capabilities.
However, a considerable part of consumers buy Cialis because of Huawei's brand influence, and now that the Wenjie brand has made further cuts with Huawei, whether consumers can continue to pay is also a question mark.