In addition to the "** war" that exploded at the beginning, the "equity transfer" of large groups is also a highlight.
On February 20, Geely Automobile Holdings*** announced that its subsidiary Zhejiang Jirun and Geely Qizheng entered into an equity transfer agreement, Zhejiang Jirun agreed to ** and Geely Qizheng agreed to purchase 45% of the equity of Ruilan Automobile, with a cash consideration of 50.4 billion yuan. **After the completion of the matter, the Group will no longer hold any interest in Ruilan Automobile; Ruilan Auto will be 55% owned by Lifan Technology and 45% owned by Geely Qizheng.
After the release of this news, it sparked a wide range of discussions, and some people said that Geely was in the next big game of chess to prepare for the revitalization of the battery swap business; It is also said that because of the poor sales of Ruilan cars, Geely is preparing to "give up" Ruilan.
The polarized view has been brought to the attention of Yang Xueliang, senior vice president of Geely Automobile Group, who responded on Weibo: "Don't get me wrong, this is just a transfer of Ruilan Auto shares by a Geely listed company to Geely Automobile Group," he saidGeely will continue to work with Lifan to support the development of Ruilan, and increase the layout and investment in the field of battery swapping. ”
In fact, as long as you are concerned about Geely, you will know that Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding Group, has repeatedly said in public that "battery swapping is promising", and even publicly suggested that the country increase the construction of electric vehicle battery swap system during the two sessions.
Geely has just reached a strategic cooperation with NIO on battery swap business at the end of last year, and the two sides will carry out comprehensive cooperation in many fields such as battery swap battery standards, battery swap technology, battery swap service network construction and operation, battery swap model research and development and customization, battery asset management and operation.
Among the brands under Geely Holding Group, Ruilan is the only one that supports battery swapping, and this cooperation is obviously paving the way for the development of Ruilan Automobile.
In this case, how could Geely "give up" Ruilan as speculated by the outside world?
It must be admitted that the performance of Ruilan Automobile is not satisfactory. ButPart of the reason for the loss is that the battery swap mode is still in the entrepreneurial period that requires investment.
Taking NIO, which has been deeply involved in the battery swap market for many years, as an example, its latest financial report shows that NIO's revenue in the third quarter of 2023 is about 190700 million yuan, an increase of 117 percent month-on-month4%, a year-on-year increase of 466%；The net loss was about 45600 million yuan, down 248%, still in the red.
Some industry insiders said: "There are not many companies that do the battery swap model, and they are all in the loss investment period, Ruilan Automobile is still in the entrepreneurial stage on the battery swap track, and will need continuous capital investment in the future, and the loss will continue." ”
In other words, Ruilan's current loss is actually a normal entrepreneurial investment.
WhileThe spin-off of Ruilan Automobile from Geely Holdings, which is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, will not only improve the performance of Geely Holdings, but also optimize resources and better develop the battery swap business.
Geely Holding Group also said in the announcement: "At present, Ruilan Automobile's battery swap business is still in its infancy, and it is expected that the main resources and continuous capital investment will be used to develop the battery swap ecology and related infrastructure." In view of the Group's competitive advantage in the Chinese automobile market, concentrating most of its resources on supporting the growth of new energy vehicles and ** battery swapping business can enhance the Group's competitiveness. ”
According to the data, after the completion of the equity transfer, Geely Qizheng, the new shareholder of Ruilan Automobile, is not only a wholly-owned subsidiary of Geely Automobile Group, but also the parent company of Geely's battery swap ecology Yiyi Internet Technology.
This also shows that the equity transfer is only "left hand to right hand", Ruilan Automobile is still Geely Holding Company, and thanks to the share transfer, Ruilan Automobile can develop in tandem with Yiyi Internet to promote the battery swap business.
In addition to the performance of Geely Holding Group and the consideration of the development of the Ruilan automobile brand, there is widespread speculation in the industryThe separation of Ruilan from Geely Holding Group is also to prepare for an independent listing in the future.
I still remember that at the Geely Group group meeting a year ago, An Conghui, President of Geely Holding Group, Chairman of Geely Automobile Group, and CEO of ZEEKR Intelligent Technology, once said"Geely Holding Group wants to be a Volkswagen Group in the new energy era. ”
This declaration not only expresses Geely Automobile's expectations for the development of China's auto industry, but also further consolidates the capital market's confidence in Geely Holdings.
In fact,Geely is not only a successful and popular automobile company, but also a very good at capital operation.
From the acquisition of Volvo Cars, to the acquisition of a controlling stake in Proton's long-established British sports car manufacturer Lotus, to becoming the largest shareholder of Mercedes-Benz's parent company Daimler Group, Geely has repeatedly demonstrated its strong capital operation capabilities to the outside world.
Up to now, Geely Automobile Group has built a huge network of auto brands in the global capital market, with nearly 20 sub-brands and 7 listed companies, including Geely Automobile, Volvo Cars, Polestar, ECARX, Qianjiang Motorcycle, Hanma Technology and Lifan Technology.
Recently,Lotus TechnologyIt has announced on its official website that it is expected to complete the business combination with L Catterton Asia Acquisition Corp (hereinafter referred to as "LCAA") on February 22, and the combined company will still retain the name "Lotus Technologies".It will be listed on the NASDAQ on February 23 local time.
This is the 8th listing of Geely Automobile Group, andIf there is no accident, ZEEKR will also hit the US stock market this year
Although Ruilan Auto has not yet revealed its listing plan, it may not be without consideration based on Geely's past performance and this equity change.
Of course, before that, the two most important things for Ruilan Automobile are to enrich the product matrix and accelerate the improvement of the layout of the battery swap system.
As Lou Yuanfa, chairman of Ruilan Automobile, said at the New Year group meeting: "This year is still a challenge for Ruilan, and there is a long way to go in the future. In the future, Ruilan will continue to adhere to the original intention of 'striving to create a new global low-carbon and free travel ecology', continue to line up troops in the market segment, continuously enrich the product series, and enter the mainstream market of price-to-price competition. ”
At present, Ruilan Automobile has a maple leaf sequence for the online car-hailing market, as well as Ruilan 7 and Ruilan 9 for the C-end market, and believes that with the launch of more products and the improvement of the battery swap system in the future, Ruilan Auto has the opportunity to become the head brand on the battery swap track.