The debt is high, the factory is in arrears of wages, and the founder runs away... The magic season of the new car-making forces in 2020
China-Singapore Jingwei client, June 30 (Fu Yumei) The "back wave" of the rim in 2020 is hard to break by the wind. Recently, many new forces in the car industry, such as Sailin, Bojun, and Baiteng, which have been hailed by the capital market, are going through life and death.
Financing has been hindered, mass production has become a mystery, debts have been high, debts have been closed, the founders have been overwhelmed and even run away... Since the "return to China" Jia Yueting next week, rim gangsters have staged a magical drama. Waiting for them, will it be Jia Yueting-style "magic" one by one?
Photo of the new Jingwei Fu Yumei in the picture
"Financing is here" Dai Lei: Burning out 8 billion won't make a car
On the evening of June 28, according to CCTV Financial Reports, Byton Motor owed wages to employees for four months. In addition, the Byton Shanghai office was withdrawn from rent in April, and the Beijing office was withdrawn from rent on June 17. The Nanjing plant has also recently shut down due to arrears of water and electricity.
CCTV financial video screenshot
Earlier, according to people familiar with the matter, Baiteng CEO Dai Lei said in the employee meeting held on June 1st that the current wages owed to employees are about 90 million yuan (3 months' salary).
BYT still has FAW Xiali on its arrears list. According to data from Tianyancha, Nanjing Zhixing New Energy Vehicle Technology Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Nanjing Zhixing"), an affiliate of Byton Auto, was established in June 2017 with a registered capital of approximately RMB 5.646 billion.
At the end of September 2018, FAW Xiali transferred 100% of its wholly-owned subsidiary FAW Huali 1 yuan to Byton. At the same time, Byton agreed to undertake FAW Huali payable employee compensation of 54.62 million yuan, and need to repay 800 million yuan in installments before September 30, 2019. However, to the deadline agreed by both parties, Byton still has 470 million yuan unpaid.
On June 2, 2020, FAW Xiali announced that it had reached a new supplementary agreement with Nanjing Zhixing. Nanjing Zhixing needs to pay 235 million yuan before June 30 this year; the remaining 235 million yuan must be paid before October 31.
Public information shows that since its establishment in 2017, Byton has carried out four rounds of financing with a total amount of about 8.4 billion yuan. Byton's last financing was on June 11, 2018, and the subsequent C round of financing experienced multiple bounces.
In May 2019, Byton announced that it will complete the C round of financing by the middle of the year and has received support from a number of powerful institutions. Subsequently, it was reported that Byton Finance will introduce about US$500 million at the end of June. In January this year, the relevant person in charge of Byton also said that the round of financing has entered the final stage, but it has not yet been in place so far.
Bi Fukang, known as the father of the BMW i8, was also a co-founder of Byton, so the market had high expectations for Byton. Or trapped in funds, Byton's first model, M-Byte, which was scheduled to be put into production at the end of 2019, has been postponed until April this year before the mass production version of the trial production car. Right now, the news of the official mass production of M-Byte has not yet spread.
It is worth noting that, on May 22, 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s “Announcement of Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturing Enterprises and Products” (batch 333) proposed to publish an admission information list for new vehicle manufacturing enterprises, the name of FAW Huali has been Changed to Nanjing Zhixing. This means that Byton has officially obtained production qualification.
Will this be Byton's "last straw"? Or is it that the rumors of "coming soon" round C financing?
"Can't Buy Tickets" Wang Xiaolin: Reported Corruption of State-owned Assets of 6.6 billion
On July 20, 2019, Jiangsu Sailin Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jiangsu Sailin"), which also held a huge amount of money at the Bird's Nest, thundered after being reported by the former legal affairs.
According to Tianyanzhan, Jiangsu Sailin was jointly established by many companies and institutions within the United Nations of the United States Sailin International Automobile Company, with a registered capital of 10 billion yuan and its registered place is Rugao, Jiangsu Province. The majority shareholder of Jiangsu Sailin, Nantong Jiahe, contributed 3.334187 billion yuan by currency subscription and held 33.42% of the shares. Nantong Jiahe is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jiangsu Gaokai Investment Development Group Co., Ltd., which is a wholly state-owned enterprise.
Tianyancha screenshot
On April 27, 2020, a Weibo user who claimed to be a former legal officer of Jiangsu Sailin Qiao Yudong reported Wang Xiaolin's alleged false investment in technology and embezzlement of 6.6 billion yuan in state-owned assets. Qiao Yudong has provided more than 40 documents to China-Singapore Jingwei reporters to support the report.
Qiao Yudong reports Weibo screenshots
According to multiple media reports, after the report letter was issued, Nantong local officials intervened in the investigation. On June 23, Jiangsu Sailin Shanghai Company received the seal notice of Nantong Intermediate People's Court. Prior to this, Jiangsu Sailin Rugao factory was also sealed.
Now waiting for Sailin, there is also a collective salary collection of thousands of suppliers and employees after the capital chain broke.
Wang Xiaolin, co-founder and chairman of Jiangsu Sailin, said in an internal letter that after reporting the incident, Qiao Yudong directly called investors, causing the 3 billion yuan originally scheduled to be in place in May to be shelved.
In recent days, Wang Xiaolin and Qiao Yudong, who have repeatedly spoken in media interviews, each hold their own words. Wang Xiaolin, who said that he could not "buy a ticket," who had been in the United States, had not returned to China to face the situation of Sailin.
Backed by the world-renowned super-run brand American Sailin, Wang Xiaolin Zeng Haoyan will gradually build a product matrix covering from "top super-run" to "public high-end", that is, everyone can have super-run, super-run SUV and super Running car.
At the above-mentioned Bird's Nest press conference, Jiangsu Sailin only released two new models of the mini car Maimai and the supercar SUV Maike. Among them, only the mini car Maimai opened the pre-sale.
Sailin Maimai Auto's Tmall flagship store has been cancelled and closed a few days ago. The total sales of this Maimai car is only 9.
"Run America" Huang Ximing: Send an open letter to give up car
On June 24, Phoenix.com quoted people familiar with the news report that Bo County Automobile founder Huang Ximing had already arrived in the United States and stated that he would "not return to China."
Founded in 2016, Bojun Automobile, formerly known as American Advanced Vehicle Technology Co., Ltd. (AVT) and Shanghai Sizhi Automotive Engineering Technology Co., Ltd., is engaged in chassis design and vehicle performance development services.
In September 2019, Bojun Automobile and FAW Xiali officially established Tianjin Bojun Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Tianjin Bojun") with a registered capital of 2.54 billion yuan. Bo Jun contributed 2.034 billion yuan in cash, with a shareholding ratio of 80.1%. FAW Xiali invested 505 million yuan in assets and liabilities related to vehicles, land and plants, with a shareholding ratio of 19.9%. Bo County thus obtained the qualification to build cars.
According to the agreement, within 30 days after obtaining the business license, Bojun Automobile must complete the initial payment of 1 billion yuan, and the remaining payment must be completed within 6 months.
However, according to the announcement issued by FAW Xiali on May 28, 2020, Bojun Automobile only paid 14.1 million yuan to Tianjin Bojun. To this end, FAW Xiali has sent 2 official letters and 3 lawyer letters to Bojun Automobile. Xiali emphasized that if Bo County Automobile continues to breach the contract, it has the right to terminate the agreement.
The capital crisis of Bo County Automobile broke out, and then the company's business was suspended, and employees' rights and interests were frequently discussed.
On June 13, Huang Ximing stated in an open letter that Bojun Automobile is currently experiencing serious operational difficulties, which have caused actual losses and adverse effects on the development of employees, shareholders, suppliers, local governments and partners. Deep apology and self-blame.
Bo County Motors Open Letter
In addition to changes in the market environment, Huang Ximing also attributed the company's financial woes to "missing many financing opportunities", causing irreparable losses to the company's cash flow management.
Huang Ximing said that in such a dilemma, Bo County Automobile decided to reposition the company's business model in order to form the results and products. This statement is also regarded by the outside world as a performance of "abandoning car manufacturing".
The two iV6 and iV7 models that are close to mass production in Huang Ximing's mouth were originally planned to be produced by Tianjin Bojun. According to several media reports after field visits, the factory located within the FAW Xiali plant is still at a standstill and has not been put into production since its establishment.
Godfather Jia Yueting's "Houlang"
From the unicorn companies that are optimistic in the industry to the end of the world, new car companies such as Byton, Sailin, and Bo Jun have staged similar scripts. And this also reflects the current status of the new forces.
Netizens also started to discuss this hotly.
Yang Jun of @譠子一言: Playing with concepts, without core technology, is a common problem of these car companies; just adding a new LOGO to the concept and assembled cars is the future, which is a beautiful bubble. The bubble will always burst, it's only a matter of time!
@读网Reference: A long time ago, experts in the automotive industry have said that this is a series of assembly line production projects. It is not that anyone who has money can squeeze it in. There is no upstream and downstream industrial chain, and tens of billions of dollars of money. Throwing it in is just a float.
@呀比嚯: How many can build a car down to earth? Being eliminated is also a matter of course.
New forces have been ups and downs in the Chinese market for 5 years. Jia Yueting is regarded as one of the representatives who officially moved the dream of building a new car to the center of the stage.
From the end of 2015, LeEco announced the "SEE plan" to build cars, and in January 2016, the first product FF ZERO1 concept car was unveiled, which was cheered by the industry. Players rushed in from this, reaching nearly 50 during the peak period.
The "PPT style" passionate speech became the standard of "Jia Yueting". At that time, capital was willing to pay for a good story.
The good times don't last long, and 2016 LeTV Group's capital problems broke out. Until the time of bankruptcy, cars were the business sector that most hindered the outside world.
Zhong Shi, an analyst in the automotive industry, believes that the so-called "new forces" are just a concept. The difference from traditional car companies is that they tend to be purely electric, and the second is that the technology of intelligent networking is more widely used. "Essentially car making is car making, and the production line is the same."
The capital investment of the entire industry chain still makes new power car companies fall on the financing road to this day.
Automobile industry analyst Zhang Xiang once told reporters at China-Singapore Jingwei that the industry chain of car manufacturing is very long. Internet thinking alone is not enough. It requires strong financial support to integrate the upstream and downstream supplier systems. In addition, the research and development of the parts and components system required for the entire vehicle also requires a large amount of human capital investment.
Li Bin, CEO of Weilai Automobile, once gave a 20 billion yuan threshold for car manufacturing. As one of the new powers in the country, Wei Lai, established in 2014, has not yet achieved a positive gross margin.
Monthly data from the China Federation of Trade Unions showed that in May this year, only 8 new forces including Weilai, Ideal, Weimar, Xiaopeng, Hezhong, Xinte, SINOMACH, and Leading had new cars sold. Many industry insiders predict that only a few of the new power car companies will survive in the future. The epidemic will accelerate this shuffling process. (China-Singapore Jingwei APP)
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