AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)09/29 Report--

Under the continued downturn of the automobile industry, many independent car brands that were once famous have now disappeared, with operational difficulties falling into the fate of suspending production or being acquired. Sichuan Automobile Mustang recently held a brand solicitation conference, signed cooperation agreements with a number of dealers to expand channels, and released product plans. Unlike other brands, Mustang announced to the outside world that it was "still alive".

Mustang will focus on the 345-line consumer market in the future. it is expected that thousands of stores will be built by the end of 2020 and tens of thousands by 2025. Mustang also revealed that it will launch eight new Mustang cars by the end of 2021.

At the same time, Mustang officially released a set of new car design sketches, code-named EK-300, positioning the new energy small hatchback, which is scheduled to go on sale in November this year. By comparison, we find that the new car is very similar to Shandong Reading i5, which has a maximum speed of 100km/h and a range of 255km.

Mustang has a connection with Shandong Reading Motor because it has been completely acquired by Reading.

At the beginning of 2019, a notice on the transfer of the property rights of an automobile company by the Beijing property right Exchange attracted attention, showing that the car company was "set up on January 12, 2011" and "the largest shareholder holds 82.5% of the shares". But the name of the car company was not really disclosed. The media have confirmed several times that the car company is Sichuan Mustang Automobile Co., Ltd., and Sichuan Fulin Group, the largest shareholder, happens to hold an 82.5% stake in Mustang.

On January 18, 2019, Reading and Mustang announced their strategic restructuring. Reading acquired 100% of the shares of Mustang at a price of about 1.45 billion yuan.

The acquisition surprised the industry. Mustang is a 30-year-old car company with traditional and new energy production qualifications, covering passenger cars, passenger cars and special-purpose vehicles, while Reading is a company specializing in low-speed electric cars. The move also confirms the changes in the traditional auto industry, as well as the dismal sales of Mustang, heavy losses, difficult situation.

By that time, the Mustang had continued to lose money. In 2017, Mustang had an operating income of 2.046 billion yuan and a net profit of-385 million yuan. By the end of October 2018, Mustang had operating income of 662.1 million yuan, net profit of-363 million yuan, total assets of 4.545 billion yuan, total debt of 3.834 billion yuan, and a debt ratio of 84.36%.

Overall Mustang sales were 36089 in 2018 and 10540 in the first half of 2019, down 33 per cent from a year earlier, according to public data. At present, there are three Mustang models on sale, namely, Bojun, T70, T80 and Spaika.

Sichuan Automotive Industry Group Co., Ltd. (the predecessor of Mustang) was born in the late 1980s, when it produced "Jinding" bus series, "Mustang" and "Bailu" light off-road vehicles and passenger and cargo vehicles. In particular, the Mustang off-road vehicle is a special vehicle for the State Public Security Bureau, Procuratorate and Court. Later, due to the difficulties in production and operation, Fulin Group carried out merger and reorganization in 2002, and formally changed its name to Sichuan (Mustang) Automobile Industry Co., Ltd., referred to as Mustang Automobile Co., Ltd., after share restructuring in December 2011.

Mustang, which specializes in SUV and off-road vehicle manufacturing, won the car production qualification in June this year. Mustang has also become the only local vehicle manufacturing enterprise in Sichuan Province that has complete production qualifications for both new energy and traditional energy passenger cars and passenger cars. At present, it has Chengdu traditional vehicle production base, Chengdu new energy production base and Mianyang comprehensive production base.

Shandong Reading Automobile Co., Ltd. was founded in 2008, is a company focusing on low-speed electric vehicle market, but also a domestic sales of low-speed electric vehicle brand. After the acquisition of Mustang, Reading became a regular worker and got a full set of Mustang production qualifications.

Reading said that in the future, Reading will make full use of the advantages of marketing channel resources to create a new positioning Mustang brand, so that the old brand coruscate a new vitality. Mustang subsequently released the 2025 Strategy, which aims to sell more than 150000 units by 2020 and more than 700000 by 2025.

Industry insiders believe that the "decline" of Mustang is due to its own reasons, products can not meet the changes in market and consumer demand, management problems are also very big, step by step into a marginal automobile company, and finally be acquired.

According to the statistics of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, China's car sales from January to August in 2019 were 16.104 million, down 11% from the same period last year. In the process of rapid market change, low-end backward enterprises will face elimination, independent brands will face intensified competition, but also enter a difficult time. Under the control of Reading Capital, does Sichuan Mustang still have a chance?

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