Recently, the national development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce issued the Special Administrative Measures for foreign investment access (negative list) (version 2021). According to the regulations, the restrictions on the proportion of foreign shares in passenger car manufacturing and the restrictions on the establishment of two or less joint ventures producing similar vehicle products in China by the same foreign investor will be abolished from January 1, 2022. This means that the red line of joint venture with a foreign share ratio of no more than 50% that has lasted for more than 20 years will disappear, and foreign investment in automobile will be fully opened.
“Almost all foreign companies are ‘ready to move’, including our company.” Executives of a joint venture luxury car company told reporters. The reporter learned that multinational corporations including Volkswagen, BMW, Kia, Ford, Audi and stellantis have launched or completed negotiations on share ratio adjustment.
In the past 20 years, under the industrial policy of market for technology, foreign automobile enterprises have entered the Chinese market by establishing a 50:50 joint venture with China’s large automobile groups. The profit feedback of the joint venture has enabled Chinese automobile companies to get rid of losses, have the funds to invest in independent passenger vehicles and bear the continuous losses of independent passenger vehicle business.
However, the independent passenger car business of large automobile groups has not fully blossomed. Some automobile groups enjoy the huge profits of joint ventures and maximize market interests, but do not focus on the independent development ability of enterprises. The independent passenger car business is a “helpless ah Dou”, with continuous swing strategy, low sales and long-term losses.
With the rapid encroachment of intelligent electric vehicles on the market share of fuel vehicles, how should those automobile groups that have lost joint venture profits and have weak independent undertakings deal with the post joint venture era of stock ratio liberalization?
At this historical time node, the first financial reporter combed the composition of independent and joint venture sales, revenue and profits of the six major automobile groups. It should be noted that due to the differences in the statistical caliber and time nodes of the data disclosed by various companies, and some companies are not listed as a whole, it is impossible to make detailed statistics on the revenue and profit data. This paper will focus on the statistics and analysis of the structural proportion of independent and joint venture business, rather than the specific sales volume or profit figures.
FAW Group: proportion of independent sales 24.18%
According to the data of China Automobile Association, in the first November of this year, the sales volume of FAW Group’s Chinese brand cars was 757000, including 332000 independent passenger cars. In the same period, the overall sales volume of FAW Group was 3131000, and the sales volume of Chinese brand cars accounted for 24.18%.
Since Xu Liuping went north to become the chairman of FAW Group, the independent passenger vehicle business of FAW Group has made rapid progress. In 2021, the sales volume of Hongqi exceeded 300000, a year-on-year increase of more than 50%, and the sales volume of Hongqi vehicles in recent four years has increased by 63 times.
In terms of joint ventures, Volkswagen has made frequent moves and attracted much attention. In 2014, Volkswagen tried to increase its equity ratio in FAW Volkswagen. In December 2020, Volkswagen found another way to increase its stake in JAC Volkswagen to 75%, and the joint venture was officially renamed “Volkswagen Anhui”. This company is also the one with the highest shareholding ratio among the three vehicle joint ventures of Volkswagen in China.
On January 18, 2021, Audi, Volkswagen and FAW Group jointly announced that the Audi FAW new energy joint venture will be located in Changchun, and Audi and Volkswagen will hold 60% of the shares of Audi FAW. Audi PPE platform, a high-end electric platform jointly developed by Audi and Porsche, will be responsible for the production of pure electric vehicles in China. Audi FAW new energy joint venture has become the second new energy vehicle joint venture controlled by a foreign party.
Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) : proportion of independent sales 52.6%
According to the data independently disclosed by Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) , the sales volume of Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) in the first November of this year was 4.8024 million. With Wuling brand, the sales volume of independent brand vehicles was 2.5261 million, accounting for 52.6%.
According to the semi annual report of Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) 2021, the total operating revenue of Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) in the first half of last year was 366.09 billion yuan, including 65.922 billion yuan for SAIC Volkswagen and 79.292 billion yuan for SAIC GM. the operating revenue of the two joint ventures accounted for 38.76% of the total operating revenue of Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) . In addition, the net profit of Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) in the first half of last year was 13.314 billion yuan, and the net profit of SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC GM was 5.206 billion yuan, accounting for 39.3%.
Among the state-owned car enterprises, Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) independent passenger car business performance is generally ahead. In the first November of this year, SAIC passenger car company sold 695500 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 25.45%. In the field of intelligent electric vehicles, Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) established SAIC Zhiji together with ALI group and Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park Development Co.Ltd(600895) . In addition, SAIC also invested and established Feifan Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. to enter the medium and high-end intelligent electric vehicle market.
Dongfeng Automobile Co.Ltd(600006) : proportion of independent sales 30.68%
A few days ago, Dongfeng Automobile Co.Ltd(600006) group held a 2022 working meeting in advance and disclosed that the estimated total sales in 2021 was 3.4 million vehicles. According to the sales performance statistics of its subsidiaries disclosed. In 2021, Dongfeng Automobile Co.Ltd(600006) group sold 525000 independent passenger vehicles and 518000 commercial vehicles.
It is worth noting that Dongfeng Automobile Co.Ltd(600006) group also counts the passenger car performance of Chongqing Xiaokang company with a shareholding ratio of 27% into the group. If this part is excluded, the sales volume of Dongfeng Automobile Co.Ltd(600006) autonomous passenger vehicles is about 400000.
Among the three central automobile enterprises, Dongfeng Automobile Co.Ltd(600006) independent passenger vehicle business has fallen significantly behind Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited(000625) and FAW Group. Although the total number of Dongfeng autonomous passenger vehicles seems to exceed 500000, no single company has sold more than 150000, and the layout of autonomous passenger vehicles is scattered and weak as a whole. Dongfeng Fengshen, its core independent passenger car unit, sold more than 120000 vehicles in the 14th year of its establishment.
Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited(000625) : proportion of independent sales 76.86%
According to the data independently disclosed by Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited(000625) , the overall sales volume of Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited(000625) reached 2122500 in the first November of this year, including more than 1.63 million Chinese brand cars and more than 1.12 million independent passenger cars, accounting for 76.86%. In the same period, the cumulative sales volume of the two major joint ventures of Chang’an Ford (including domestic Lincoln) and Chang’an Mazda was 392000, accounting for 18.47%.
In addition, according to the semi annual report of Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited(000625) , the net profit of Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited(000625) in the first half of last year was 1.73 billion yuan, and the total net profit of the two joint venture passenger car companies was 643 million yuan, accounting for 37.16%.
Among the major state-owned automobile enterprises, Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited(000625) is not only the only state-owned automobile enterprise with sales of more than one million independent passenger vehicles, but also the only large state-owned automobile group with positive net profit of independent business in the past few years. The profit contribution of independent business in some years exceeds that of joint venture plate.
The weakness of Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited(000625) lies in new energy vehicles. In the first November of this year, the sales volume of Chang’an new energy vehicles was 93500, with a year-on-year increase of 249%, but its business volume is in a relatively backward position in the overall trend of the industry. In addition, the high-end intelligent electric vehicle business of Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited(000625) is still blank. The first vehicle of avita technology will be delivered in the second half of 2022.
In 2022, Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited(000625) will launch three new energy vehicle products, some of which come from the CHN architecture jointly developed by Chang’an, Huawei and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) .
BAIC group: proportion of independent sales 5%
BAIC group did not disclose the group’s sales volume, revenue and profit data as a whole. According to the data of BAIC group’s listed company BAIC Motor Corporation Limited (hereinafter referred to as “BAIC”), the sales volume and profit contribution of the joint venture are about 95%. BAIC motor’s subsidiaries include Beijing Hyundai, Beijing Benz, Fujian Benz and independent brands.
According to the financial report of the first half of 2021, the revenue of BAIC Motor Corporation in the first half of the year reached 90.38 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.1%, and the net profit was 2.76 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 163.5%. Among them, the revenue of Beijing Benz reached 88.06 billion yuan, accounting for 97.4%, and the revenue of independent brands was only 2.32 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 21.0%.
In terms of sales volume, the sales volume of Beijing Benz in the first half of the year was 316000, a year-on-year increase of 17.0%; Beijing brand sales were only 28000, down about 20% year-on-year. In addition, the wholesale sales volume of Beijing Hyundai is 194000, while that of Fujian Benz is 19000, and the sales volume of the joint venture accounts for about 95%.
Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.Ltd(601238) : proportion of independent sales 20.82%
According to the data independently disclosed by Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.Ltd(601238) , the total sales volume of the group in the first November was 1910700, including 1509100 in the joint venture sector, accounting for 78.98%; The sales volume of independent passenger cars was 397800, accounting for 20.82%.
In the first half of last year, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.Ltd(601238) had a total revenue of 204.282 billion yuan, including 6 joint ventures including GAC Toyota, GAC Honda, GAC Mitsubishi, GAC Fick and GAC Toyota engine, with a total revenue of 13.595 billion yuan, and the revenue of major joint ventures accounted for 64.9% of the group.
Among several major state-owned enterprises, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.Ltd(601238) independent passenger vehicles, although the total amount is not high, the performance of a single company is relatively considerable. In the first November, GAC passenger car company sold 292100 vehicles. In the new energy sector, gac-e’an sold 105700 vehicles in the first November, with a year-on-year increase of 102.26%, ranking top among local auto enterprises.
In terms of mixed reform, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.Ltd(601238) is also relatively fast. At the end of last year, gac-e’an’s mixed reform project was publicized. Feng Xingya, general manager of Guangzhou Automobile Group Co.Ltd(601238) , said in an interview with the media that gac-e’an’s plan on employee stock ownership has been completed. It is expected to complete employee stock ownership by the end of 2021, complete the mixed reform in 2022, and choose the opportunity to go public. At present, the state-owned shareholding ratio of GAC EA is about 50%, which may drop to 20% ~ 30% after the mixed reform.
“In the new energy vehicle industry, capital and talents are interrelated. If the mixed reform is not carried out, the interests of employees, especially the interests of key employees, can not be combined with the development of the enterprise, and salary incentive alone can not be used.” Feng Xingya said.
(First Finance)
