The bankruptcy and liquidation of Cheetah Motor has come to an end.

A few days ago, some media reported that at the first creditor meeting of the merger and reorganization of 6 companies including Hunan Leopaard Automobile Co., Ltd. held on July 15, Hengyang Hongdian New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Hongdian New Energy) was arrested. Determined to be the only reorganization investor. It is reported that Hongdian New Energy will invest 800 million yuan to pay off debts to obtain the corresponding assets of 6 "Changfeng" companies, including vehicle production qualifications, vehicle production bases, engine production bases, vehicle R&D bases, and vehicle axles. production base, etc.

The only investor in this restructuring case, Hongdian New Energy, was established on October 31, 2019. It has two major shareholders, of which Hengyang Hongqi Investment Co., Ltd. holds 96% of the shares, and the other 4% of the shares are owned by the subsidiary of WM Motor. It is held by Weimar Automotive Technology (Hengyang) Co., Ltd.

For a time, "WM Motor Saves the Cheetah" became a hot topic in the automotive circle.

Indeed, Weimar used to have a lot of momentum. It was a new car company with high expectations and a member of the new car field. However, in the past two years, watching Wei Xiaoli's strong rise, the market value and market performance have been soaring all the way; Nezha and Leipao, who had little attention before, have also caught up, but Weimar has become the chaser. From this point of view, the current WM Motor does not have much leisure to save the cheetah, and it is the local government who can truly become a "leopard-saving hero".

Hunan was originally a major province of automobiles, and it is now transforming into a new energy vehicle industry cluster. WM Motor’s presence in Hengyang is part of it. In 2020, the state-owned investment platform of Hengyang officially invested in WM Motor. Hengyang State-owned Assets should also be the leader in the project of reorganizing Cheetah Motor this time.

The equity relationship diagram of Hongdian New Energy, picture source: Qichacha

Changfeng has also been brilliant

According to public information, the predecessor of Changfeng Group was the 7319th Factory of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. formally established.

The highlight moment of Changfeng Group is that it owns nearly 20 holding and shareholding subsidiaries, forming the so-called "4321" strategic layout in the automotive field, including 4 parts production bases (Changsha, Yongzhou, Hengyang, Huizhou), 3 1 vehicle production base (Changsha, Yongzhou, Chuzhou), 2 R&D centers (Beijing, Changsha) and 1 group operating headquarters.

Cheetah Motor is the core enterprise of Changfeng Group. Changfeng Group and Hunan Jinhongyuan Investment Co., Ltd., a shareholding platform company established by company executives, are the two major shareholders of Cheetah Motor, holding 39% and 31% of the shares respectively. In addition to Changfeng Group and Cheetah Motor, the other four of the six "Changfeng-related" companies restructured this time (Changfeng Power, Changfeng Cheetah, Fengshun Axle and Great Wall Huaguan) are all subsidiaries of Cheetah Motor. Among them, Changfeng Cheetah and Great Wall Huaguan are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Cheetah Motor, and Changfeng Power and Fengshun Axle are the holding companies of Cheetah Motor, holding 50% and 41.86% of the shares respectively.

Everyone here may have questions about Great Wall Huaguan. Isn't Great Wall Huaguan the parent company of Qiantu Motor? Is Qiantu Automobile also related to Cheetah? The answer is that it doesn't matter. Although they are both called Great Wall Huaguan, Qiantu's parent company and Cheetah Motor's subsidiary are two companies. The full name of Cheetah Motor's subsidiary is Beijing Great Wall Huaguan Automobile Technology Development Co., Ltd., and the full name of Qiantu Motor's parent company is Beijing Great Wall Huaguan Automobile Technology Co., Ltd.

However, the two major cities, Huaguan, are both related to Lu Qun.

Lu Qun is a top student of Tsinghua University. He graduated from Tsinghua University with a major in automotive engineering in 1990. After graduation, he entered the first joint venture company in China's automobile industry, Beijing Jeep. After 13 years, Lu Qun became an engineer in Beijing Jeep. Product Engineering Manager. After accumulating good experience and contacts, in 2003, Lu Qun started his first business, and co-founded Great Wall Huaguan, whose main business is the design, development and service of complete automobiles.

Like other start-ups, the newly established Great Wall Huaguan also inevitably has to worry about development funds. Fortunately, it quickly found an investor - Changfeng Group, and Great Wall Huaguan, which accepted the investment of Changfeng Group, also entered Changfeng. Under the group, the two companies have basically maintained their independent operations. Until 2012, the original Great Wall Huaguan was split, one part was completely merged into Changfeng Group (including the assets and liabilities of the original company), and the other part joined the Great Wall Huaguan re-founded by Lu Qun, and completed in 2015. Two major events: one is the wholly-owned establishment of Qiantu Motor, but the current overall development of Qiantu Motor is not ideal. Some time ago, it was rumored that it would go abroad through a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) IPO; the second is to land on the New Third Board, but Due to years of losses, it chose to delist from the New Third Board in 2019.

Back to Cheetah Motor, which belongs to the glory of Cheetah Motor, began with the cooperation with Mitsubishi. By introducing the manufacturing technology of Mitsubishi Pajero, Cheetah has developed a series of off-road vehicle products, many of which have become the star products of official vehicles, especially "military and police vehicles". At the highlight moment, Cheetah Motor once occupied nearly half of the domestic light off-road vehicle market.

Cheetah off-road vehicle, image source: Cheetah Motors

In the past few years, when the self-owned SUV was blowing out, the market explosion of Cheetah also came very violently. However, the good times did not last long. As the competition in the domestic SUV market continued to intensify and the Chinese car consumption upgrade trend gradually took shape, the sales of Cheetah cars, which lacked the ability to “supply blood” independently, continued to decline after 2017. After 2019, Cheetah Motor was completely shut down, and its sales were almost negligible (sales data compiled by Gasgoo show that the sales volume of Cheetah Motor in 2020 and 2021 will be 1,045 and 40, respectively).

Cheetah's "Self-Saving"

During the three years that the market has been stagnant, Cheetah Motor is not completely "lying flat", and is also seeking the possibility of self-help.

At the 2019 Shanghai Auto Show, Cheetah Motor released a new brand LOGO, and also brought a new pure electric vehicle, hoping to take advantage of the new energy trend for this second revival, but as we have seen, it did not achieve the expected. Effect.

Image source: Cheetah Motors

Beginning at the end of 2019, Cheetah Motor began to raise funds for self-rescue through the transfer of idle assets. Among them, the Jingmen factory was handed over to the local government; the Chuzhou factory was also transferred; with the help of the local government, in April 2020, the Changsha factory of Cheetah Motor was also transferred. It was handed over to Geely Automobile, and the production base became Geely Automobile's foundry. Geely Holding Group said at the time that it would introduce new energy vehicle products and technologies in the Changsha plant, promote resource integration, and enhance the overall competitiveness of the Cheetah Motor Company.

In June 2020, Changfeng Cheetah reached a cooperation with Beidou Aerospace Automobile, announcing that it would enter the field of new energy commercial vehicles. However, this transformation is equally difficult. The two companies have never penetrated into the new energy field before, and the capital and hardware technology required for vehicle manufacturing (Beidou Aerospace Vehicle's advantages are in software systems and equipment) There are also obvious We can imagine the difficulty of making a difference.

In the end, the cheetah fell.

Image source: Cheetah Motors

From August 31, 2021 to March 16, 2022, the Changsha Intermediate People's Court successively ruled that "Changfeng series" Cheetah Motor, Changfeng Group, Changfeng Power, Changfeng Cheetah, and Fengshun Axle were reorganized. On April 28, 2022, the Changsha Intermediate Court ruled that the above-mentioned enterprises and Great Wall Huaguan, a total of 6 enterprises, should be substantively merged and reorganized according to the application of the administrator. Until July 15, Hongdian New Energy, which invested 800 million to repay the debts of "Changfeng" enterprises, became the only investor in the restructuring. However, although 800 million seemed a lot, the debts of "Changfeng" enterprises were not enough. In other words, it's still a drop in the bucket.

According to relevant media reports, after review, the amount of creditor’s rights initially determined by the manager of the Cheetah Automobile Reorganization case was nearly 7 billion yuan, the amount of declared creditor’s rights that was not determined was 6.02 billion yuan, and the amount of creditor’s rights that was suspended was 2.02 billion yuan. At present, the assets of Cheetah Motor that can be used for debt repayment are only more than 2 billion yuan, including 800 million yuan invested by the reorganization investor Hongdian New Energy.

Next, it may not be easy for dealers and suppliers who have a debt relationship with Cheetah to get a satisfactory result.

China's auto industry is accelerating its reshuffle. Not only the newly entered car-making forces must sprint to gain a foothold for themselves, but a large number of traditional car companies must also seize the opportunity in the increasingly cruel knockout competition and fight for survival. But since it is a "battlefield", there will definitely be winners and losers. For uncompetitive car companies, such as Brilliance, Lifan, Zotye and earlier Changhe, Hafei, Xiali, etc., the final result can only be the sale of assets , transfer qualifications, and gradually withdraw from the historical stage.

Cheetah is another, but certainly not the last.