AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)09/26 Report--

The independent car company Zhongtai Motors, which is absent from the Beijing Auto Show, has attracted the attention of consumers. The funding problem led to the suspension of work and production, and the creditors applied to the court for pre-restructuring because they were unable to pay off their maturing debts. Zhongtai Motor has not yet come out of its financial predicament. Recently, Zhongtai Automobile issued an announcement, openly recruiting investors and planning to introduce strategic investors to restructure its business.

Zhongtai Automobile announcement shows that Zhejiang Yongkang people's Court has accepted the application of registered creditors for pre-restructuring of Zhongtai Automobile Co., Ltd. (Zhongtai Automobile), and selected Zhejiang Jingheng Law firm as the pre-restructuring manager; Zhongtai Automobile said that in order to smoothly promote the pre-restructuring work of Zhongtai Automobile, maintain the operational value of the enterprise, and realize the integration of resources, investors are now openly recruited to the public.

The purpose of Zhongtai Automobile recruitment and reorganization investors is to coordinate and complete the pre-restructuring work of Zhongtai Automobile and its subordinate core business subsidiaries, with financial support from investors. comprehensively optimize the debtor's asset structure, debt structure and equity structure, realize industrial transformation and upgrading, etc.; the recruitment of investors is not limited to the industry.

On September 16 this year, * ST Zhongtai issued an indicative announcement on creditors applying to the court for company pre-restructuring. According to the announcement, Zhejiang Yongkang Rural Commercial Bank Co., Ltd. submitted an application for pre-restructuring to the Yongkang City people's Court on the grounds that Zhongtai Motor was unable to pay off its due debts and obviously lacked solvency, but still had restructuring value.

At present, Yongkang Court has accepted the application for registration pre-reorganization. Up to now, whether Zhongtai Motor will be able to enter the reorganization process is still uncertain.

According to official information, Zhongtai Automobile is an automobile manufacturing enterprise with vehicle R & D, manufacturing and sales as its core business, with the production qualification of traditional fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles. The company has laid out vehicle production bases in Zhejiang, Hunan, Hubei, Shandong, Chongqing, Guangxi and other places, covering sedan, SUV, MPV and other market segments, and marketing networks throughout the domestic large and medium-sized cities as well as third-and fourth-tier markets. In addition to the core vehicle business, the company also has some automotive instrumentation, stamping, weldment and door business.

The "decline" of Zhongtai Automobile is also a microcosm of marginal independent car companies. In view of the operating difficulties and the sharp decline in performance, Zhongtai Automobile said: first, the automobile industry is seriously polarized, and Zhongtai Automobile continues to weaken its market influence after an one-year product gap, resulting in a further loss of potential customers; second, due to the shortage of liquidity, production is basically stagnant in the first half of the year, and there is a large gap between production and sales volume and expectations; third, production in some bases almost stagnated in the first half of the year. Fourth, there are a large number of vehicles in the inventory of the fifth state, and the sales volume has dropped as a result of dealing with the inventory of the fifth state through price reduction and promotion, and fifth, the management expenses have not been reduced.

Zhongtai Motors said that due to a shortage of liquidity, the current production line is likely to continue to stop production.

For the next development, Zhongtai Automobile said: first, to introduce strategic investors to restructure the business; second, to raise funds through multiple channels and ways to solve the problem of shortage of liquidity, such as requesting local governments to support or sell idle assets and non-main business assets; third, to adjust and optimize the organizational structure and business, and streamline the establishment. The fourth is to take the mass production and listing of the new model TS5 as a breakthrough to reshape the brand image of Zhongtai Automobile and optimize the product layout.

Earlier, Zhongtai Automobile officials revealed that the company is promoting procurement, production and marketing work in an orderly manner, and Zhongtai TS5 will be put on the market in the near future.

In 2016, Zhongtai launched a number of models, such as the T600 sports version, the SR9 and the New Damai X5, among which SR9 became Zhongtai's "star" products after its launch. Thanks to this, Zhongtai Automobile's cumulative sales reached 333100 vehicles in 2016, an increase of 50% over the same period last year, which is also the peak of Zhongtai Automobile sales. The good times did not last long, due to the subsequent outbreak of quality problems, word-of-mouth plummeted, Zhongtai car sales have been declining, after a decline in 2017, sales fell to 154800 in 2018 and only 116600 in 2019. In 2020, the production and operation business of Zhongtai Automobile almost came to a standstill. In the first half of the year, Zhongtai Automobile produced only 574 cars and sold 1417 cars.

Whether Zhongtai, which is becoming more and more difficult, can survive 2020 is also a topic of great concern to the industry.

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