AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)12/10 Report--

"good is expensive, expensive is good", Bowo car thunderstorm again! Last night, Chinese commercial vehicle brand Foton Motors issued a notice saying that due to the inability to repay suppliers and other creditors, the relevant creditors applied to seal up Beijing Baowo related assets, involving an amount of about 124 million yuan. The book value of the seized property is 2.209 billion yuan, including machinery and equipment, transport equipment, office equipment, IT equipment, tooling moulds, other equipment, projects under construction and inventory. The assets of Beijing Baowo seized this time do not belong to Futian, nor are they related assets that Beijing Baowo uses assets to repay debts.

Foton Motor made it clear that the assets seized this time are necessary for the production and operation of Beijing Baowo, and the seizure will not only have a significant impact on Beijing Baowo, but also have a negative impact on the recovery of the company's related claims. The company applied for the seizure of Bowo-related assets on November 11, which has not yet been implemented by the court. After the Beijing Baowo assets are seized by other creditors, if the court allows the company to apply for the seizure of Beijing Baowo assets, it can only wait for its turn to be sealed up.

Beijing Baowo Automobile Co., Ltd. was established in January 2016 with a registered capital of 665 million yuan, according to Tianyan check. Equity penetration shows that Shenzhou Youche (Xiamen) Information Technology Co., Ltd. is the controlling shareholder of Beijing Baowo, with a shareholding of 75.2%, and Futian Motor holds 24.79%. The entanglement between Futian Motor and Beijing Baowo stems from the transfer of the latter's stake many years ago.

According to officials, Bowo, a century-old car founded by German engineer Carl Bowo in 1919, is a German luxury brand with annual sales of more than 1 million at its peak and once competed with Mercedes-Benz and BMW for the market. However, due to poor management, product competition and other reasons, Bowo finally 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, as the technology and product power of Bowo Motor failed to keep up with the development of the times for a long time and lost money for many years in a row, Beijing Baowo lost a total of 4.014 billion yuan in three years from 2016 to 2018. Futian Motor, which cannot make ends meet, finally listed and transferred 67% of Beijing Baowo shares. Shenzhou Youche finally acquired Bowo Automobile for 4.109 billion yuan, becoming the holding company of Shenzhou Youche.

In January 2019, Foton transferred a 67 per cent stake in Bowo Motor to Changsheng for 3.973 billion yuan, and it was Shenzhou excellent car behind Changsheng. However, although Fukuda transferred Bowo cars, the final payment has not been paid yet. According to the half-yearly performance report, as of December 3, 2020, Changsheng Xingye still owes the company 1.671 billion yuan (including interest) for equity transfer.

In order to reduce losses, Fukuda Motor issued an announcement on March 23, 2021, in which the company's board of directors examined and passed a bill on the recovery of some assets and liabilities of Bowo engines. On October 27, 2021, Foton Motor announced that Foton Motor had filed a lawsuit against Changshengxingye and Shenzhou Youche (Xiamen) for all unpaid equity transfers and interest, and applied to the court to freeze 500 million shares of Beijing Baowo held by the applicant Shenzhou Youche (Xiamen). On December 6, 2021, Futian Motor announced that because Beijing Baowo failed to repay the loan to the company, the company applied to the Beijing Arbitration Commission for arbitration and preservation in order to safeguard the company's legitimate rights and interests. the court ruled to seal up, seize or freeze property worth 1.645 billion yuan.

The reason is still related to the development of Beijing Baowo. At one point in June this year, there were reports in the market that Beijing Baowo would enter bankruptcy proceedings. According to the interim report of Foton Motor, 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. 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. Prior to this, the management committee of Beijing Economic and technological Development Zone formally signed a contract with Xiaomi Science and Technology, announcing that Xiaomi Motor had settled in Beijing Economic Development Zone. According to the plan, the Xiaomi automobile project will build Xiaomi automobile headquarters, sales headquarters and R & D headquarters, and will build a vehicle factory with an annual output of 300000 vehicles in two phases, with a production capacity of 150000 vehicles in the first and second phases respectively. The first car is expected to be offline and mass produced in 2024.

At present, Bowo still has a number of models on sale, but there is no specific sales in the market, which seems to be a sign that some independent brands failed a few years ago. 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 presence of Bowo cars in the market is declining, and if Xiaomi can buy Bowo cars, it may be the best of both worlds, which can not only solve Xiaomi's production qualifications, but also be able to repay related debts.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat