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Last night, Futian Motor, a Chinese commercial vehicle brand, announced that the company's shareholding company Beijing Baowo Automobile Co., Ltd. and Huaxia Bank had not reached an agreement on the plan of "borrowing the new to return the old" for the 400 million yuan loan, and was unable to repay the 400 million yuan loan principal and related interest of Huaxia Bank on time. On September 18, 2021, the company has paid 404 million yuan to Huaxia Bank to pay the principal, interest and penalty interest of the above-mentioned guaranteed loan. After the company reimburses the guaranteed loan, the guarantee balance to Beijing Baowo is 310 million yuan, and the overdue guarantee amount is 310 million yuan.

According to officials, Bowo cars have a history of 100 years and were founded by German engineer Carl Bowo in 1919. In the last century, Bowo was indeed a veritable luxury brand in Germany. At its peak, it sold millions of cars a year and once competed with Mercedes-Benz and BMW for the market. However, due to poor management and other reasons, Bowo declared bankruptcy in 1960.

After half a century of leveling, Chinese commercial vehicle brand Foton Motor spent 5 million euros to buy Bowo and set up Beijing Baowo Automobile Co., Ltd. in January 2016. after the acquisition, Bowo used the slogan of "German brothers" and launched the Bowo BX7. Coupled with publicity, the car sold 6000 cars a month at the initial stage of its launch.

However, the good times did not last long, because the technology and product power of Bowo Automobile could not keep up with the development of the times for a long time, its performance in the market was declining day by day, and its operation was once again in trouble. Beijing Bowo lost a total of 4.014 billion yuan in three years from 2016 to 2018. Futian Motor, which could not make ends meet, finally listed to transfer 67% of Beijing Bowo shares, and Shenzhou Youche finally bought Bowo Automobile for 4.109 billion yuan, becoming a holding company of Shenzhou Youche. According to Tianyan investigation, the shareholding proportion of Shenzhou Youche (Xiamen) Information Technology Co., Ltd. is 75.21%, and that of BAIC Foton Motor Co., Ltd. is 24.79%. According to the financial report, the net profit of Foton Motor is 3.57 billion yuan in 2018, 190 million yuan in 2019 and 150 million yuan in 2020. It is not difficult to see that the situation of Fukuda Motor has improved after the transfer of Bowo.

However, although Fukuda transferred Bowo cars, the final payment has not been paid yet. According to the half-yearly performance report, as of December 31, 2020, Changsheng Xingye still owes 1.671 billion yuan (including interest) to the company's equity transfer. In order to reduce losses, on March 23, 2021, the company's board of directors examined and passed the "bill on the recovery of some assets and liabilities of Bowo engine".

At one point in June this year, there were reports in the market that Beijing Baowo would enter bankruptcy proceedings. Although it is unknown whether Bowo will go bankrupt for the time being, its current market operation is indeed worrying. As of June 30, 2021, Beijing Bowo had total assets of 8.35 billion yuan, liabilities of 8.537 billion yuan and total net assets of-187 million yuan, with operating income of 499 million yuan and net profit of-732 million yuan (unaudited) in the first half of 2021, Foton said in an announcement. Futian Motor said that at present, Beijing Baowo has not yet resumed work and production, the operating situation has deteriorated, and there are greater risks in production and operation. judging from the current operating situation and specific financial data of Beijing Baowo, it does not have the ability to pay debts at present.

In this context, it is also rumored that Bowo cars may change ownership. Beijing authorities are actively promoting Xiaomi's acquisition of Bowo car production qualification, transferring 180000 Bowo car production capacity to Xiaomi car project, according to the Financial Associated Press. At the same time, as the existing capacity of the Baowo automobile plant cannot meet Xiaomi's investment of as much as US $10 billion in the next four years, Xiaomi will select a site and build its own factory in Wuhan by acquiring existing production capacity and production qualifications. Adopt the "Beijing + Wuhan" dual-plant model to ensure a stable production capacity effect in the future. However, the relevant companies did not respond to the relevant reports.

A successful car brand can not only rely on slogans, but also have strong product strength and brand competitiveness. It is obviously impossible for Bowo to rely on its "German pedigree" to win market recognition, even if it is the halo of German luxury cars, without solid car-building skills, it is also difficult in the domestic market. At present, the sense of existence of Bowo cars in the market is declining. If Xiaomi buys Bowo cars, it will actually only focus on production qualifications and its own production line.

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