◆? Weilai has been short of money.
Since the establishment of Weilai, the controversy about its capital has never stopped, such as the establishment of Weilai Electric Formula Team, the listing of new cars costing 80 million yuan, and the opening of NIO in the bustling centers of major cities. House, etc. These large expenses are absolutely extravagant for a brand-new brand established on 20 14.
In addition, Weilai is obviously different from many new forces making cars. The former did not build its own factory, but chose Jianghuai Automobile with average strength as its OEM. This move is inconsistent with its consistent large-scale burning of money, which once made the outside world full of doubts about the strength of its products. On the other hand, the news of the new forces making cars "circling money" is endless, which shows that both their high-profile behavior and external pressure make Wei Lai extremely controversial.
After spending a lot of money in succession, the capital flow of Weilai 20 19 began to light up red. Weilai released the 20 18 annual financial report in March last year. According to the data, Weilai achieved a revenue of 495 1 100 million yuan and a net loss of 23.328 billion yuan. Therefore, the official also announced in the financial report that it would terminate its plan to build a factory in Shanghai and continue to take the OEM route.
It is worth mentioning that Weilai global headquarters is located in Shanghai. Originally, the Shanghai government intended to support Weilai's development, but later chose to support Tesla, which eventually led Weilai to run around seeking financing, and once had an affair with Beijing and Zhejiang.
In May last year, Weilai signed a framework agreement with Beijing Yizhuang International Investment and Development Co., Ltd., claiming that it would receive financing of 654.38+0 billion yuan, and announced that it would implement the "dual headquarters strategy" with the Shanghai company after entering Beijing, but there was no new progress between the two sides. On June+10, 5438, Wangchuan Weilai negotiated with the Xing Wu District Government of Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province for financing intention of more than 5 billion yuan, but it ended in vain.
In the case that it is difficult to introduce foreign capital, Weilai's cash flow problem is also reflected in its share price. In June last year, 5438+ 10 hit the lowest price since listing-1.19 USD/share, with a drop of 9 1% within one year. At the same time, Weilai began to scrimp, first selling Weilai Electric Formula Team, and then slowing down NIO? House expansion plan is changed to push NIO, covering an area of100 ~ 200m2. Space, it can be seen that Wei Lai's self-help action is quite urgent.
◆? Cheng Weilai, supporter of Hefei Municipal Government
The essence of thrift is to save money. However, in order to survive, Weilai can only keep financing. Not long ago, the official announced the completion of two convertible bond financing projects totaling 200 million US dollars. Qin, co-president of Weilai, commented that "this $200 million is only to supplement short-term cash flow and ensure that the company will not die suddenly in the cold winter." Therefore, finding long-term stable investors has become the focus of Weilai recently.
Earlier, it was reported that Guangzhou Automobile Group would invest in Weilai with US$ 654.38 billion, but the former quickly clarified that even if it participated, the total shares would not exceed US$ 654.38 billion, which was far from the rumored US$ 654.38 billion. Basically, it can be concluded that Weilai and GAC have no follow-up.
Since then, it has been reported that Geely will invest 300 million US dollars in Weilai, and may integrate the latter's production capacity. However, less than a week after the rumor came into being, Weilai signed a contract with Hefei Municipal Government, announcing that Weilai's China headquarters would be located in Hefei, and Weilai EC6 mass production project started. Obviously, Weilai chose the latter between car companies and government capital.
On the day of signing the contract, the local media in Hefei reported the incident in two editions, in which the first edition clearly explained the cooperation between the two parties, including "Weilai expects that the revenue this year will reach 65.438+0.48 billion yuan; It is planned to launch 6-8 models in 2024, with revenue reaching 654.38+02 billion yuan; It is planned to land on the science and technology innovation board before 2025, etc., but this version was quickly deleted, and then the second version simply said that the project planned to raise more than 1000 billion, and it will build a leading enterprise with an output value of1000 billion in five years, which is quite vague.
Referring to the first edition of the report, it can be seen that Weilai needs to make significant progress in revenue in order to continue to receive support from Hefei. It can be said that Weilai and Hefei government may have a gambling agreement. As for the content of the first edition to be blurred later, the reason is probably that Weilai and Hefei have only signed a framework agreement at present, and there are still variables in the specific details, so it is not appropriate to publish specific figures.
But in the short term, after Weilai EC6 decides to continue to be contracted by Jianghuai, the interests of Weilai and Hefei will be strongly tied, so Weilai's short-term capital flow is probably not a problem. In addition, Wei Lai wrote in this press release that Anhui Provincial Party Committee Secretary and other leaders witnessed the launch of EC6 mass production project, which shows the high level of cooperation. This move can also be said to be an endorsement of Wei Lai's confidence in development.
◆? Is it still possible for Geely to fight?
After signing a contract with the Hefei municipal government, Wei Lai began to speak out for Geely's shareholding. Among them, Li Bin still implicitly said, "We always don't comment on rumors, or we mainly make announcements. We are often rumored. " As for Qin, he said, "In the disclosure stage, we will disclose it by announcement. I can't and can't say anything in advance at present. We do not rule out other financing, and these will not be mutually exclusive. " This statement has left some room for Geely's shareholding.
On the other hand, from Geely's point of view, its failure to acquire Aston Martin revealed the need for new projects to improve the strategic layout, so it did intend to invest in Weilai, but it is hard to say whether it will succeed in the end. In addition, Geely has not made a formal statement so far, probably because Hefei has entered Weilai strongly, which complicates the whole situation.
Geely's consideration of taking a stake in Weilai must be recognition of its value. Although Weilai has a lot of controversy, it has indeed achieved high-end brand recognition by holding high and playing high. For example, ES6 and ES8 can achieve good sales performance at their respective levels and win the recognition of many high-end users, which is probably the envy of many traditional automobile brands at present.
In addition, from a practical point of view, although Geely has launched a brand-new geometry brand to enter the pure electric vehicle market, it will also launch a brand-new geometry A, but it is not difficult to distinguish from the appearance that geometry A is based on Emgrand GL and geometry C is transformed from Emgrand GSe. These two products are difficult to support the geometric brand.
As for the PMA pure electric architecture jointly developed with Volvo, referring to the previous application order of CMA architecture, Lectra and Volvo will be used first, and then Geely will launch the CMA architecture model. The reappearance of this order or decline in PMA architecture will inevitably drag down the development of geometric brands, so how to quickly fill the vacancy of high-end models of geometric brands has become Geely's top priority.
Refer to the practice of GAC Weilai before, Aion of GAC? LX pure electric SUV changed its name and became GAC Weilai HYCAN? 007。 On the other hand, Geely can introduce Weilai ES6/ES8 into the geometric brand through equity cooperation, which can support the brand height and integrate production with Weilai, thus helping the latter to reduce production costs.
It is worth mentioning that Qin once said that "the pure electric chassis and platform formed by Weilai ES8 can be copied and used by cooperative car companies." It can be seen that Weilai has long planned to share the platform with its partner * *. In addition, in an internal letter at the beginning of this year, Li Bin said that he would increase the gross profit margin as soon as possible. Obviously, it is worth considering that Weilai has more bargaining power in the supply chain and even enjoys Geely cooperation on the platform.
Furthermore, in the first edition of the newspaper deleted by Hefu Media, it is also full of imagination to "plan to land on the science and technology innovation board before 2025". At present, Weilai is listed in the United States, and if it wants to return to the science and technology innovation board, it needs to be privatized first, which will inevitably require strong capital to provide support, so the role of external investors is indispensable.
Considering Geely's ability to make good use of capital for many years, as long as Li Bin is willing to compromise on control, Geely may help Weilai to complete privatization and then bring back the science and technology innovation board to gain a higher market value. Of course, all this is another story. When talking about returning to the science and technology innovation board, Li Bin simply responded that "it was all planned". After that, how Weilai will choose, and whether Li Bin can seize the right of choice depends on whether Weilai can survive successfully by relying on its own "hematopoiesis".
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.