The words are still in my ears. This veteran of the automobile circle who has made great contributions to the "first case of stock ratio liberalization" has once again entered people's sight after retiring for more than a year. This time, the news about him is only a short sentence: Qi Yumin, the former party secretary and chairman of Brilliance Automobile Group Holding Co., Ltd., is suspected of serious violation of discipline and law, and is currently undergoing disciplinary review and supervision investigation.
Doulong
Time goes back to 15 years ago. From June 5438 to February 2005, Qi Yumin, then vice mayor of Dalian, suddenly received a transfer order. When he recovered, he had boarded the early train to Shenyang. Qi Yumin took the helm of Brilliance Group in June, 5438+03. The short message to his sister was: "I went to a strange city and a strange place with indescribable complex feelings in the rain and snow.
In order to save Brilliance Group, which had accumulated losses of nearly 8 billion yuan at that time, Qi Yumin did several major things. First, I went south to Guangzhou, and paid off the payment owed to parts suppliers and the wages owed to employees with 700 million yuan borrowed from the bank. Qi Yumin knows that only by solving the debt problem can this mired enterprise take a break.
The debt problem is solved, and then there is the problem of product strength. Around 2006, it was a good opportunity for the automobile market in China to grow substantially, but the joint venture brands basically monopolized the top three in the sales charts. Among the best-selling cars of that year, Jetta, Accord, Passat, Corolla and Elantra rarely saw the products independently produced by China brand car companies, while domestic models such as Li Xia and QQ, which sold well all over the country, always started from the low-priced car market to seize the sales share. Perhaps inspired by this, Qi Yumin played a strategy of reducing prices and promoting sales, and speeding up the development of new products, in order to increase the sales of the group in the fastest time. All products of Brilliance's own brand entered the "official drop" melee, and the price of China Zunchi was as high as 40,000 yuan. Other new car products are also mass-produced in advance, and the price is below 6.5438+10,000 yuan.
I have to admit that the measure of "exchanging price for quantity" has achieved quick results. In 2006, the annual sales volume of Brilliance Auto's own brand jumped to more than 200,000 vehicles, becoming the mainstay of its own brand that can compete with Geely after Chery. At that time, independent brands occupied the first place in the total share of the national automobile market with a share of 26%, and all the above-mentioned automobile enterprises also exceeded the average growth level of the automobile market. As a result, Brilliance Group successfully turned losses into profits. No one can imagine that a year ago, this group with infinite scenery was on the verge of life and death.
Under the scenery
But behind this scenery, there is still a looming crisis. From 20 15 to 20 19, the loss amount of the independent plate of Brilliance has been expanding continuously, and the main growth force for the group to turn losses comes from the rapid growth of BMW Brilliance.
At that time, how did our China brand car companies develop?
In 20 16, changan passenger cars led the China brand, with annual sales exceeding1280,000 vehicles. SUV has become the main best-selling model, with sales of CS75, CS35 and CS 15 of 200,000,/KLOC-0.70,000 and 70,000 respectively. Changan Automobile also entered Silicon Valley to cooperate with PNP and began to invest in autonomous driving technology.
In 20 16, Great Wall Motor achieved an annual sales scale of over one million vehicles for the first time. Among them, Haval brand has built a number of star models, and has been the champion of SUV sales in China for 14 years in a row. Its Haval H6 has become the China brand vehicle with the highest rate of preservation, with a cumulative sales volume of over 580,000 vehicles, accounting for half of the annual sales of Great Wall.
In 20 16, Geely Automobile exceeded its annual target with an annual sales volume of nearly 800,000 vehicles, and the brand-new concept car Ke Ling 0 1 was officially unveiled. In addition, Geely's new engine capacity is expanded, and 1.5T engine will be promoted. Geely also signed an agreement with Ericsson to jointly develop car networking facilities. ...
During the 20 16 years of Brilliance Group, only BMW Brilliance, a joint venture company, maintained a profit, and Brilliance China suffered losses for two consecutive years, with the overall sales volume dropping by more than 50% year-on-year. The total annual sales of Jinbei and Song Hua brands is 18600. The losses of the above three China brands led to the asset-liability ratio of Brilliance Group approaching 70%, far higher than the industry average of 45%. However, the nightmare has just begun.
At the key nodes of the "National Five, National Six" switch, Brilliance Group did not launch qualified products that met the standards. With the advent of the era of new energy vehicles, traditional fuel vehicle enterprises have embarked on the road of electrification transformation, but Qi Yumin lost his keen judgment at this time. Brilliance's independent sector failed to catch up with the "National Six" craze and was disqualified from producing new energy vehicles by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. In the technical fields such as car networking and autonomous driving, Brilliance Group is obviously not prepared enough. The sequela of "price for quantity" began to appear gradually. The brand power of Brilliance's independent plate has dropped again and again, and the low price doomed it to lose the qualification to compete for consumers in the middle and high-end market.
To make matters worse, in 20 18, the restrictions on the ratio of foreign shares in the automobile industry were liberalized, which was tantamount to an industry test for many traditional automobile enterprises that relied on the profits of joint venture brands to enhance the group's performance. Take Brilliance Group as an example. According to the previous share ratio of 50%, BMW Brilliance can be said to have contributed most of the profits to the Group. Once the share ratio is lowered, the profits of Brilliance China and even the whole group from the joint venture company will be greatly reduced.
Prior to this, the actual control rights of various departments of BMW Brilliance actually fell into the hands of BMW. Under the leadership of Qi Yumin, the strategy of "market for technology" made the group lose the right to speak in all aspects of joint venture brand R&D, procurement, production and marketing. For Qi Yumin, the liberalization of share ratio is the most difficult negotiation day and night before retirement. For Brilliance, it is the group that finally loses the "profitable cow" of BMW. For BMW, it seems to be just a unilateral struggle.
Interestingly, during Qi Yumin's tenure, in addition to the big price war, there is another important event worth mentioning, that is, the completion of the share ratio and the liberalization of the first case negotiation. Relying on the funds raised by three listed companies, namely Brilliance China, Jinbei Automobile and Shenhua Holdings, Qi Yumin spent 500 million yuan during the financial crisis to buy13/kloc-0.40 billion shares of Brilliance China at the bottom of the stock market, and pocketed HK$ 2.6 billion in the case of a sharp increase of HK$ 2 per share; At the same time, it also divested Jinbei Automobile zhonghua car business and got rid of bad capital of 65.438+0.5 billion yuan; Subsequently, Qi Yumin sold 500 million shares of Brilliance China and cashed in165438+25 million Hong Kong dollars again.
On August 29th, 2020, Shanghai Shenhua Holdings Co., Ltd., its controlling shareholder Brilliance Automobile Group Holdings Co., Ltd. and its former chairman Qi Yumin were listed in informed criticism by the Shanghai Stock Exchange because their controlling shareholders violated decision-making procedures and information disclosure obligations and occupied non-operating funds. This kind of informed criticism, I don't know whether it makes Ji Yumin feel uneasy and uneasy before coming.
The building is on the verge of collapse-the situation is hopeless.
Although from Song Hua 7 to? China V7 and Brilliance domestic models have obtained the engine production technology authorized by BMW, but the sales of the above products are bleak. First of all, the sales volume of Song Hua 7, which is mainly purchased by leasing companies and major customers, is zero. Then, the sales volume of China V7 decreased continuously in the past three years. In 2020, the cumulative sales volume was only 622 vehicles, down 88% year-on-year. The influence of Brilliance brand has plummeted as early as the "price war", and it is impossible to pull down the building by a "BMW core".
On June 5438+ 10 this year, Brilliance Group failed to pay a private debt "17 Huaqi 05" with a scale of 10 billion yuan, resulting in substantial breach of contract; On June 5438+065438+ 10, Brilliance Group disclosed that the company had constituted a debt default of 6.5 billion yuan, with overdue interest/kloc-0.44 million yuan; Subsequently, Brilliance Group officially entered the bankruptcy reorganization procedure.
According to the previously re-signed joint venture agreement, by 2022, BMW will acquire part of the shares of BMW Brilliance for 3.6 billion euros, increasing the shareholding ratio to 75%. The signing of this agreement is undoubtedly another heavy blow to the operating performance of Brilliance Group. For Brilliance Group, which is deeply involved in the debt storm, there is not much time and space to fight back. What role did Qi Yumin play in it? We can only wait for the final result of the investigation.
From "safe landing" to "accepting disciplinary review", it is just one year and eight months since Qi Yumin retired.
But the indisputable fact is that even without Qi Yumin, more joint ventures will face the same dilemma after the restrictions on share ratio are liberalized. China automobile market has changed from incremental expansion to the era of stock competition. Luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW have higher profits and gradually entered the market dividend period, which can be said to have withstood the double threat of epidemic situation and automobile market environment. In this case, foreign capital will not give up the huge cake of China market, and China brands should carefully consider the necessity of transforming from financial investment to independent research and development.
On the issue of liberalizing the share ratio, factors such as product technology, marketing channels and brand premium will become important bargaining chips for Chinese and foreign shareholders. Obviously, Brilliance Group's "decentralization" and even the price reduction strategy eventually made this enterprise lose ground. In the new competitive situation, its own R&D and technical level determine who will have more say.
From a positive point of view, although the liberalization of the share ratio will have a certain adverse impact on China enterprises from the operational level, it will also force car companies to speed up independent research and development to a certain extent, and have more say in core technologies and parts, so as not to blindly make a living from the profits of joint venture brands, and eventually become the foundry of joint venture brands. Of course, these words may be too late for Brilliance Group.
# Write at the end
Success or failure has vanished, and Qi Yumin's "past life" has ended. Brilliant, tragic, helpless and lonely. From the brink of crisis to bankruptcy and reorganization, Brilliance Group did not rely on one person, nor did it rely on one person. But I wonder if Qi Yumin would have thought that he would leave his name on the imprint of the times in this form.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.