AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)01/20 Report--

Recently, the fact that FF China headquarters will be located in Huanggang City has sparked a heated discussion on the Internet. On January 18, Faraday Future officially announced that it had signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Huanggang City. Huanggang Municipal Government will actively assist FF in its industrial layout in Huanggang City, and FF China headquarters will also be moved to Huanggang City. Yesterday, in response to the news, FF founder Jia Yueting said: go all out to promote FF 91 Futurist to deliver high quality and high products on time. I would like to thank the Hubei Provincial Government and Huanggang Municipal Government for their strong support and frank cooperation to help FF realize the dual-genetics and dual-home strategy of China and the United States.

Looking back on Faraday's future car-building road, it is not satisfactory. According to relevant information, Faraday's future was founded in 2016, and the first mass-produced electric car, FF 91, was officially launched in Las Vegas in January 2017. after that, the company announced the completion of $1 billion in round A financing, with Leeco founder Jia Yueting as global CEO and chief product officer. In February 2018, Evergrande Group Xu Jiayin became the largest shareholder in FF with HK $6.7 billion. Evergrande had no choice but to withdraw because of the struggle for dominance, retaining only 20 per cent of FF's pre-IPO stake. Jia Yueting's personal debt crisis broke out in 2019, causing Faraday to run into financial problems in the future, and car-building projects continued to stagnate. On July 22, 2021, the merger of FF and SPAC went public in the United States, raising more than $1 billion.

For Jia Yueting, the listing of FF seems to be another step forward from his dream, but the FF still has a bumpy road after its launch, and the first model has not been mass produced for a long time. In October 2021, it was shorted by J Capital Research, an American short seller, and said bluntly that FF could not sell a car. Of course, with regard to the short seller's report, FF Jia Yueting said that "hot fried cold rice is nonsense", and reminded J Capital Research that "this is not the first time I have been hit in the face". People related to FF also said that the report is full of misleading information, lack of logic and no factual basis. FF expressed disappointment and condemnation of the agency's irresponsible actions and reserved the right of legal prosecution for such false allegations.

Since then, Faraday in the future set up a special committee of independent directors to investigate. The survey found that there was no evidence to support the previous short report by J Capital Research, but admitted that only a few hundred people had paid for Faraday's future 14000 orders, a statement that misled investors. To that end, Faraday in the future, at the request of the board, demoted or suspended a number of responsible people, cut the base salary of the company's CEO, Carsten Bradfield (Carsten Breitfield) and founder Jia Yueting, and asked them to report to the newly appointed executive chairman, Susan Susan Swenson. In addition, a Nasdaq warning letter was received in November 2021 for failing to submit its financial results for the third quarter of 2021.

In April 2022, according to a filing issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the board of directors adjusted Jia Yueting's position. Jia Yueting no longer held the post of executive officer and retained his post of chief product officer. This also means that Jia Yueting has lost his direct management power, but Jia Yueting still controls the company through the management-controlled FF Top. The data show that FF Top is a wholly owned subsidiary of FF Global Partners LLC, which is led and founded by Jia Yueting.

Of course, this internal struggle ended with the withdrawal of two FF board members in September last year, and Jia Yueting and his partner team regained control of FF. Jia Yueting also said: to set things right and get back on the right track is another major inflection point for FF. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all the investors, partners, executives and employees who worked together to save FF. Next, let all futurists join hands with global suppliers to rush the mass production delivery of FF 91 Futurist to create maximum value for shareholders, users, employees, partners and the industry.

According to the plan disclosed by FF in its IPO, FF91 was supposed to be delivered in July 2022, but FF91 has not yet delivered because of financial difficulties. Faraday's operating loss in the third quarter of 2022 is about $81 million, with a net loss of about $103 million, down from a net loss of $304 million in the same period last year, according to the data. Faraday realized a cumulative net loss of $398 million in the first three quarters of 2022, down about 7.88 per cent from the same period a year earlier. As of September 30, 2022, Faraday's future total assets are about $541 million and total liabilities are about $253 million.

This time, FF announced cooperation with Huanggang and also announced the signing of a shareholder agreement with FF Top, which continued to consolidate FF Top's position as an important shareholder. In response, Jia Yueting also said that FFIE and FFGP, a global partner company composed of dozens of core management of FF, signed a new shareholder agreement, which finally ended the adjustment of the top governance structure, restored the highest ethical standards of governance and put the business back on track.

Cooperation with Huanggang is undoubtedly a timely help for FF. After all, Faraday is short of funds in the future. If the cooperation with Huanggang is successful, the domestic supply chain and policy support to the new energy vehicle market will also be more conducive to FF to speed up the pace of mass production and sales. Of course, if the mass production plan for the first FF model is delayed, the capital market will lose confidence in FF. FF shares have been trading below $1 a share since the end of October. As of press time, FF closed at $0.584 per share, with a total market capitalization of $347 million, more than $4.1 billion off its IPO market value of $4.535 billion.

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