搜尋歷史
熱門搜尋
經銷商登入 / 註冊
In mythology, Taiyi Zhenren reshaped Nezha's body with lotus, the capital market is staging a real-life version of "Lotus Rebirth". When Taiyi Shenglian presents the restructuring plan, preparing to inject new life into Neta Auto trapped in the mire, on the other side, Zotye, which once went viral relying on the "Bao Shi Tai", has also restarted vehicle manufacturing trials after years of silence.
Two car companies that once fell to the bottom have successively emerged with signs of resuming production. At first glance, it seems like these two automotive brands are about to stage a counterattack from the brink. However, the protagonist of this drama has never been the car products themselves.
1
Zhou Hongyi Lost Money But Scars Remain, Yet Deal-Buyers Still Fight Over It
Zhou Hongyi previously invested 1.9 billion yuan heavily in Neta Auto, personally stepped into the big pit of car manufacturing, and now explicitly stated he would not enter the new energy sector again, this investment basically went down the drain.
Just when old investors regretted their decisions, Ye Ji, who operates Taiyi Shenglian, gained nearly 1 billion yuan in paper profits solely based on the stock price increase driven by the restructuring news.
A plot almost identical to this also once happened with Zotye.
Once the news of restarting production and trials was released, Zotye's stock price rose rapidly, and the exchange immediately issued an inquiry letter, specifically reminding the market to be vigilant against speculation.
The cars have not yet achieved mass delivery, and even owners are still fighting for rights, but the wealth game in the capital market has already been staged in advance. This is exactly the most intriguing part of the restructuring of bankrupt car companies — building cars is just the story told to the outside world, stock price fluctuation is the battlefield that capital wants to cash out first.
So the question comes, why does capital insist on holding onto the vehicle manufacturing industry where profits are thin and money is hard to make?
The answer is actually hidden within the mature rules of bankruptcy restructuring. For car companies like Neta and Zotye that are deeply trapped in debt crises, the residual value of factories and production lines is quite limited.
Neta's production equipment located in Nanning, Guangxi, failed to sell in two discounted auctions, the equipment residual value is almost negligible compared to the original total investment; Zotye's large number of old production lines retained in the past are also difficult to directly transform into competitive capacity.
The truly valuable asset is the dual qualification for whole vehicles domestically where new approvals are almost no longer granted, this is the hard ticket for legally producing and selling passenger cars. In the past, Li Auto spent 650 million yuan acquiring Lifan, the core goal was to secure this vehicle manufacturing license.
Ye Ji has already obtained Hongxing Auto's vehicle manufacturing qualification through Shanzi High-Tech, obtaining Neta's qualification will complete the puzzle of its own whole vehicle business; for Zotye to successfully reach the resumption of production stage, the first thing to protect is also this hard-earned ticket to enter.
2
Suppliers/Local Governments Bite the Bullet to Pay, Capital Moves In Ready to Live
In the end, the core of the restructuring plan is to make a thorough cut to the old debts that have piled up for years.
In Neta's restructuring plan, small claims within 800,000 yuan can only receive about 12% clearance payment, large claims exceeding 800,000 yuan are directly forced to debt-to-equity swap, large numbers of suppliers can only give up most of the principal and passively hold equity in the new company.
When Zotye promoted restructuring back then, it also relied on creditors' debt discounts and debt-to-equity swaps to separate out huge historical liabilities. The billions of funds invested by local governments previously in places such as Tongxiang, Yichun, Nanning, etc., became sunk costs that cannot be recovered and no longer become the burden of new investors.
And capital can only use a sum far lower than the enterprise's original investment to obtain clean assets after stripping heavy debts.
Local governments are willing to push restructuring because they value the employment, industrial chain, and local GDP driven by the automotive industry; suppliers accepted this plan because compared to the outcome of full bad debts, recovering partial cash or equity is already a relatively better choice. Under the mutual compromise of multiple parties, basic conditions were created for the resurrection of car companies.
In other words, this resurrection drama was never a simple market behavior from the beginning, but a game of interests after multiple parties weighed the pros and cons. Capital uses bankruptcy rules to acquire assets at low prices, relies on stories to boost market value, and once subsequent business fails to meet expectations, the risks will ultimately be borne by creditors and secondary market investors.
So the reality ordinary people really need to be aware of is, restructuring drafts do not equal funds landing, trial new cars do not equal stable mass production, intended overseas orders do not equal confirmed sales revenue, and stock price increases do not equal corporate future profitability.
3
Can't Win in the Domestic Market, Why Not Fool Foreigners?
So, what is the next step after debt clearance? Of course, it is to continue gambling. But both Neta and Zotye know that returning to the brutally competitive domestic passenger car market at this time is destined to have no chance, so both companies have unspokenly shifted the focus of resumption of production to the overseas CKD semi-knocked-down assembly model.
Neta has already built CKD factories in Bangkok, Thailand and Jakarta, Indonesia, the Thailand base has been in production for a long time, and still holds more than 7,000 overseas intended orders, the restructuring plan also lists overseas channels as core assets. After subsequent resumption of production, prioritize exporting parts to Southeast Asia and assembling and delivering locally, thereby avoiding endless price competition in the domestic market. Zotye's route is almost the same, the new model Wink Y01 targets overseas markets such as Southeast Asia, Africa, etc., planning to go overseas relying on the parts assembly model to bypass the fierce battles in the domestic market.
This overseas strategy is a very pragmatic choice for car companies that have experienced bankruptcy and rebirth. Demand for brands, intelligence, and range from consumers in the domestic market is getting higher and higher, Neta and Zotye both carry the past negative reputation, wanting to open up sales again domestically requires continuous investment of huge marketing and R&D expenses, failure risk is extremely high.
And in markets such as Southeast Asia and Africa, user requirements for vehicle configuration are relatively relaxed, and cheaper models are easier to open up sales channels. The CKD model also has extra advantages, splitting parts for export to local assembly can greatly reduce tariff costs. For the capital side, overseas orders, overseas factories are not only actual business layouts, but also high-quality stories that can be told to the capital market.
More importantly, in the first eight months of this year, China's cumulative car exports reached 7.153 million units, a year-on-year increase of 66.7%, the total export volume has already surpassed the 7.098 million units of the full year last year, such a strong growth trend perfectly sets the background for this industry story.
Reality is ultimately not mythology, Taiyi saving Nezha does not involve benevolent salvation, Neta and Zotye rebirth in the capital market is a game of interests. Capital entering the game has never been simply to save a car brand, because the return obtained relying on capital market valuation far exceeds selling cars.
But in the end, whether this play relying on qualifications, debt clearance, overseas narrative can work through, ultimately still depends on whether the overseas market can truly digest their products. After the lively capital stories, car manufacturing ultimately has to return to the products themselves.
