This article**: Times Weekly Author: Zhou Songqing.
On February 20, Geely Automobile (00175HK) announced that Zhejiang Jirun, a subsidiary of the Company, entered into an equity transfer agreement with Geely Qizheng, pursuant to which Zhejiang Jirun agreed** and Geely Qizheng agreed to purchase 45% of the equity of Ruilan Automobile at a cash consideration of 50.4 billion yuan. **After the completion of the matter, the Group will no longer own any equity interest in Ruilan Automobile.
The secretary of the board of directors of Lifan Technology told the Times Weekly reporter: "From Geely Hong Kong listed companies to Geely Automobile Group under the transfer of equity to non-listed companies, the shareholders of Ruilan Automobile have not changed in essence, the new shareholder Geely Qizheng is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Geely Automobile Group, is the parent company of Geely Battery Swap Ecological Yiyi, Yi Neng, this equity change will better promote Ruilan Automobile in the field of charging and battery swapping." ”
Yang Xueliang, senior vice president of Geely Holdings, also publicly said on social platforms: "Don't misunderstand, this is just a Geely listed company that transferred the shares of Ruilan Automobile to Geely Automobile Group, Geely will continue to work with Lifan to support the development of Ruilan, and increase the layout and investment in the field of battery swapping. ”
Geely Automobile sold Ruilan and made a profit of 11.7 billion.
According to the announcement of Lifan Technology, the third-party appraisal agency Jones Lang LaSalle issued an evaluation report on this transaction, taking December 31, 2023 as the evaluation base date, and evaluating 100% of the equity of Ruilan Automobile according to the market method, with an appraisal value of 11$1.9 billion.
The 45% equity of Ruilan Automobile was transferred from Zhejiang Jirun to Zhejiang Jizheng at a transfer price of 50.4 billion yuan, Zhejiang Jirun is a Hong Kong subsidiary of Geely Automobile, and Zhejiang Jizheng is a subsidiary of Geely Automobile Holdings. Through this **, Geely Automobile's Hong Kong listed companies will also receive a profit of 11.7 billion yuan.
This means that Ruilan Automobile will be spun off from Geely Automobile's Hong Kong listed company level and will no longer be consolidated.
Why is this being done?
According to Geely Automobile's announcement, Ruilan Automobile is committed to establishing an intelligent battery swap ecosystem and providing competitive products and services for the market. It launched the battery swap business in 2022. At present, the battery swap business of Ruilan Automobile 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 automotive market, the Group believes that the Group's competitiveness can be enhanced by focusing most of its resources on supporting the growth of new energy vehicles and the battery swapping business.
Guolian ** analyst Golden released a research report saying that Geely Automobile divested Ruilan Automobile and expected to travel lightly. Ruilan Automobile's sales volume in 2023 is 380,000 units, down 32% y/y, and a net loss after tax of 62.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year change from profit to loss, and the decline in sales led to pressure on the performance of Ruilan Automobile. Geely Qizheng, the equity buyer of Ruilan Automobile, is wholly owned by Geely Automobile Group, the parent company of the listed company, and after the completion of this transaction, Ruilan Automobile will be divested from the listed company system, which will help the performance of the listed company to further improve.
Ruilan 7**Ruilan Auto official website
According to public data, in 2022, Ruilan Automobile will achieve an operating income of 583.9 billion yuan, net profit of 15.59 million yuan, slightly higher than the profit and loss line; In 2023, its operating income fell to 348.3 billion yuan, and the net profit was a loss of 62.2 billion yuan.
Ruilan Automobile's financial situation. **Lifan Technology announcement
Ruilan began to develop the best customer market.
Ruilan Automobile is a battery-swapping vehicle platform jointly funded by Lifan Technology and Geely Automobile, which initially focused on the B-end market, with Maple Leaf Automobile as the main force and Geely Automobile Cao Cao special car**; Subsequently, at the end of 2022 and in the middle of 2023, C-end models such as Ruilan9 and Ruilan7 will be launched one after another, trying to make efforts at the B-end and C-end at the same time.
In 2022, Ruilan Auto will sell 560,000 units, and the sales volume of Ruilan Automobile in 2023 will be 380,000 units.
Investors raised on the SSE e-interaction: In addition, it was observed that the Ruilan 7 recently launched two executive models.
In this regard, Geely said: In 2023, Ruilan Automobile will mainly increase investment in new product research and development, brand building and product promotion, and the construction of battery swap stations belongs to the business scope of ecological chain partners. The two executive models of Ruilan 7 are mainly models developed for the unique needs of ** large customers.
A person from the secretary office of the board of directors of Lifan Technology told a reporter from the Times Weekly: "Ruilan Automobile will definitely expand in the channel this year, but the specific arrangement plan needs to see the rhythm of Ruilan." ”
At the same time, on February 19, some netizens posted on social platforms that they saw the advertisement of Ruilan Automobile for the first time on the high-speed rail.
The construction of battery swap stations is still accelerating.
In November 2023, Geely Holding's battery swap ecological platform Yiyi Internet landed the third-generation battery swap station and proposed that in the next three years, Yiyi Internet will operate 2,000 battery swap stations across the country.
At present, the construction of battery swap stations has occupied the third position in the market, and the construction speed ranks second.
Easy Internet battery swap station. **Yiyi Internet official website
According to the latest statistics from the China Charging Alliance, as of January 2024, the number of battery swap stations and brand rankings are: NIO ranks first with 2,367, Aodong ranks second with 690, Yiyi Internet ranks third with 287, GCL Electric Port ranks fourth with 108, and Hangzhou Botan ranks fifth with 108.
In October 2023, the number of battery swap stations and brand rankings are: NIO ranked first with 2,067, Aodong second with 647, Yiyi Internet third with 234, GCL Electric Port fourth with 108, and Hangzhou Botan fifth with 108.
In July 2023, the number of battery swap stations and brand side rankings are: NIO ranked first with 1,636, Aodong second with 625, Yiyi Internet third with 198, GCL Electric Port fourth with 108, and Hangzhou Botan fifth with 108.
From the statistics of the past six months, we can analyze that NIO still occupies the top spot in the battery swap station, and the construction progress is still rapid, the new battery swap station of Aodong is less than 100, and the last two battery swap stations are not newly built at all, and the construction speed of Yiyi Internet battery swap station temporarily ranks second, but the speed is lower than that of NIO, in order to achieve the goal of operating 2000 battery swap stations in the next three years, it is still necessary to step up the charge.