Recently, Midea Group announced that it intends to acquire the controlling stake of "Hekang Xinneng" at a price of 743 million yuan through its subsidiary Midea HVAC. After the transaction is completed, Midea HVAC will control 23.73% of the voting rights of Hekangxinneng.
The name of the announcement is very long-"Prompt Announcement on the Acquisition of the Controlling Right of Beijing Hekang Xinneng Technology Co., Ltd.". In short, Midea will become the indirect controlling shareholder of Hekang Xinneng, and He Xiangjian, the founder of Midea Group, will become the actual controller. And many media headlines say that the United States wants to build cars! The company's business will extend to the new energy automobile industry.
Then, the question is, why can Midea's acquisition and Kangxin cause such a big noise? Of course, something as outrageous as the fact that Evergrande spent thousands of dollars to build a car last year is not the 743 million style of Midea this time. The reporter believes that from the common sense, the strategic positioning of Midea's company is enough to explain the problem, and it is not a cross-border car. Whether this is the case or not, let's analyze it.
Is the frequency converter that important?
First of all, the acquired Beijing Hekang Xinneng Technology Co., Ltd. was established in 2003. Is a high-tech enterprise specializing in industrial automation control and new energy equipment. Listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 20 10 to 1.
In terms of company growth, in 20 17 and 20 18 years, the operating income of Hekang Xinneng was 135 million yuan and12.06 million yuan respectively. 20 19 year operating income13.05 million yuan, up 8 15% year-on-year, and total profit 190,000 yuan. In other words, these three years have basically stood still. So, why does Midea want to acquire Hekang Xinneng?
From the analysis of the company's business scope, of course, from the core business of Hekangxinneng, such as industrial frequency converter and servo system, high and low voltage frequency converters are helpful to speed up the frequency conversion process of large central air conditioners in Midea and enhance the competitive advantage of their traditional fixed frequency products.
In addition, Midea Group's intention is not only here, but also the diversification of business, that is, the expansion of new business and new model. Specific to the field of new energy vehicles, Hekang Xinneng mainly provides products and services such as powertrain, motor controller, auxiliary power system, intelligent charging pile for electric vehicles, and construction of new energy vehicle rental platform.
It is said that at present, in the powertrain and key parts of new energy vehicles, and Kangxinneng related products have formed a supporting relationship with many domestic car companies. For example, two years ago, Hekang Xinneng signed a cooperation agreement with faw liberation Qingdao Automobile Co., Ltd. "The agreement stipulates that faw liberation will give priority to the new energy vehicle supporting products produced by the company in 20 18."
In fact, at the opening ceremony of faw liberation New Energy Base on February 7, 2007+2065438, faw liberation signed an order with Hekang Xinneng for 500 new energy vehicles. To tell the truth, this quantity is far from being built. According to the answer of Hekang Xinneng Interactive Platform, "In 20 18, the company produced 7385 sets of powertrain and parts for new energy vehicles and sold 9706 sets."
Some netizens questioned that "Hekang's products are not in a monopoly position, and the acquisition of Hekang cannot master the core technology. From the manufacturing point of view, there is no need to hold a company in order to control the inverter, because Huawei and Apple have not been able to leave the parts OEM. If we want to develop new energy vehicles, Hekang's products are too small for the whole vehicle. "
There is one detail that we must know. Before 20 16 12, the securities of Hekang Xinneng were simply called "Hekang Frequency Conversion", but it was changed to "Hekang Xinneng" only because its business was derived from new fields such as energy conservation and environmental protection projects. At present, the main business of Hekang Xinneng includes three sectors: high-end manufacturing of energy-saving equipment (accounting for 74.94%), construction and operation of energy-saving and environmental protection projects (accounting for 65,438+07.44%) and assembly and operation of new energy vehicles (accounting for 7.62%).
Therefore, according to common sense, we know that Midea's acquisition and Kangxinneng are mainly to increase the automation and robots of the company's strategic positioning (see below for details). The so-called entry into the new energy automobile industry can only be regarded as "catching the grass and hitting the rabbit, and we can hold on", and we don't have to overestimate the movement of the beautiful car. At most, Midea wants to be a quiet supplier. Why?
Does beauty cross borders?
Beauty is not the first time to build a car. As early as 2003, Midea Group successively acquired Yunnan Bus Factory, Yunnan Aerospace Shenzhou Automobile and Hunan Sanxiang Bus Group, and built two new production bases in Kunming and Changsha.
According to the progress at that time, Midea has achieved the manufacturing capacity of annual output of 1 10,000 passenger cars and special chassis. However, five years later, Midea terminated its car-making project and sold its Changsha automobile production base of Sanxiang Bus Company to BYD for 65.438+0.08 billion yuan. In addition to Changsha base, another major production base, Yunnan Midea Industrial Park, was closed in June 2008 and transformed into a modern logistics base. At the beginning of 2009, Midea Group announced the revision of the three-year plan, but in this blueprint, the automobile business was not mentioned again.
Since then, Midea has disappeared in the field of car-making, and acquired KUKA Robot, a German robot company, for 29.2 billion yuan, and KUKA Robot is one of the few technology companies in the world that produce robots used in assembly lines of automobile OEMs.
Fang Hongbo, chairman of Midea Group, said that the ultimate goal is to make Midea "the largest robot and industrial automation company in China". In an interview with the Financial Times, Fang Hongbo said that he needed time to integrate KUKA so that Midea could benefit from the wave of automation sweeping across China.
According to professional analysis, although Hekang's core products are unique in the field of high-voltage inverters, the main application industries are heavy chemical industries such as electric power, metallurgy, mining, petrochemical and building materials, which are typical project markets, which is obviously not what Midea+KUKA is good at. In the integration of actual business, the integration speed of Midea and KUKA has been slower than expected. Now, with the addition of Kang Xinneng, the road to integration will undoubtedly be lengthened again.
Let's look at an announcement dated February 1 1, 2065438. According to the announcement, at that time, "Hekang Variable Frequency" acquired 40% of Dongling Technology and set foot in the field of AC servo. And "AC servo system" is the core technology product of Dongling Technology, which is at the leading level in China. Moreover, Dongling Technology's "EPS-RS0.4-7.5KW Special Servo System for High Performance Robot Based on CAN Bus" has also declared the 20 12 National Key New Product Plan. What's important is that this system fully meets the operation requirements of robots in key indicators such as positioning accuracy and stability, and can gradually replace imported similar products.
Therefore, the purpose of Midea's acquisition and Kang Xinneng is by no means simple, and it should have a considerable relationship with KUKA robots. We don't speculate here. Moreover, the acquisition of Hekang Xinneng is only the first step. The follow-up of Midea does not rule out continuing cooperation and expanding the new energy vehicle business through mergers and acquisitions. In a word, "anything is possible".
In addition, we have to ask a * * * question, why do home appliance giants, including Midea, cross borders frequently in recent years?
It should be said that this is related to the "post-real estate cycle industry" attribute of home appliances. Obviously, now that the growth rate of the real estate industry is slowing down, the home appliance industry naturally cannot be immune. Take Midea's main air conditioner as an example. In 20 19, the output of air conditioners in China was 2190,000 units, up 6.7% year-on-year. The sales volume was 2,654,380,400 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 6%. Obviously, the growth rate has slowed down.
As of March 30th, Midea Group's market value was 335.9 billion yuan, and Gree Electric's market value was 365.438+033 billion yuan, which was already huge. Moreover, from the perspective of gross profit margin, according to Wind data, from 20 18 to the third quarter of 20 19, the gross profit margin of Midea air conditioners has dropped from 30.63% to 29.09%. Similarly, the gross profit margin of Gree air conditioners decreased from 36.48% to 30. 16%. Therefore, in addition to the competition of automobile air conditioning, finding a new breakthrough has become a top priority for home appliance giants.
Moreover, with the advent of the 5G era, home appliance giants have joined the automotive field in order to seize the new opportunities brought by smart cars and car networking in the 5G era. The beautiful layout of the automobile supply chain is also a matter of course.
However, the risk of building a car is huge. Including Chunlan and Oaks a long time ago, as well as Dyson, Gree and Skyworth. However, in recent years, the current "cross-border car-making" home appliance enterprises have finally ended in failure.
Chunlan, as the leading brand of home appliance industry in 1990s, invested 720 million yuan in Dongfeng Nanjing Automobile at the end of 1997, and then established Chunlan Automobile Co., Ltd. to enter the automobile industry. 1 1 years later, in 2008, Chunlan transferred 60% equity of Chunlan Automobile to others and withdrew.
In 2003, Oaks spent 40 million yuan to acquire 95% shares of Shenyang Mashuang, thus obtaining the production license of SUV and pickup truck, and established Shenyang Oaks Automobile Co., Ltd. In February, 2004, Oaks announced its formal entry into the automobile industry. However, the car dream stopped in March 2005.
Therefore, cross-border car-making is really not very fun. At the moment when the new forces of building cars and traditional car companies frequently fall, it is even more chilling for new entrants. At the moment when the automobile industry has entered the era of great change, except for professional people doing professional things, perhaps cash flow is more important than anything else.
Text/Wang Xiaoxi
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This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.