A few days ago, UCAR announced that it would stop selling assets to Jiangxi Jinggangshan BAIC Investment Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jinggangshan BAIC) or its designated third party (according to the original plan, UCAR will transfer 440 million shares of CAR Inc to the latter at a price of 3. 1 HK$ per share) because both parties failed to complete the delivery before the final delivery date expires. Subsequently, UCAR announced plans to invest in MBK at a price of HK$ 4 per share. Indigo, a subsidiary of Partners? Charm? Company? Limited? Transfer of the above-mentioned shares of the automobile company ..
Image source: CAR Inc, official website.
Difficult "selling yourself"
CAR Inc' s road to prostitution began in April this year.
Huabao, a private equity investment institution from the United States? Pincus) was the first company to sell. On April 16, CAR Inc announced that Amber, a subsidiary of Huaping Investment Group? Gem (formerly a shareholder of CAR Inc.) will purchase its shares in CAR Inc. from UCAR in two batches at the prices of HK$ 2.3 and HK$ 3.4 respectively. But Amber, the two major shareholders? The equity transfer transaction between GEM and UCAR was not smooth, and it was terminated only after completing the first batch of transactions.
However, CAR Inc. did not worry about his next home for too long, and then came CAR Inc.' s "old friend"-BAIC Group. In April, BAIC signed a cooperation agreement with CAR Inc, and the two sides agreed to reach comprehensive cooperation in vehicle procurement, new automobile retail and technical cooperation. On June 1 day, CAR Inc announced that UCAR had signed a non-legally binding strategic cooperation agreement with BAIC on May 3 1 day. BAIC will acquire no more than 450 million shares of CAR Inc. from UCAR, which is equivalent to 265,438+0.26% of CAR Inc.' s total issued share capital. ..
Judging from the results, the road to switching to BAIC Group is not smooth. Just over a month after the two sides signed the agreement, showstopper appeared. On July 2nd, SAIC announced that its subsidiary, SAIC Port, intends to acquire CAR Inc with no more than 6,654,380,000 shares at a price of 3. 1 HK$ per share. Because BAIC signed a non-legally binding agreement with CAR Inc before, it is easy to be won over by SAIC with a higher bid. However, this reversal came faster. Only ten days later, the negotiation between SAIC and Shenzhou Department broke down. On July 20th, SAIC announced again that it would abandon the acquisition of CAR Inc because of the new situation that affected the transaction in the subsequent related negotiations.
Interestingly, just after SAIC quit, BAIC made a comeback wearing a vest. On the night when SAIC announced its abandonment of the transaction, UCAR announced that it had signed a sale agreement with Jinggangshan BAIC to transfer its 440 million shares of CAR Inc to the latter at a price of HK$ 365,438+0 per share. According to the information that Gaspar learned from the enterprise survey, BAIC Industrial Investment Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of BAIC Group, is the largest shareholder of Jinggangshan BAIC, with a shareholding ratio of 40%.
Then, a more interesting situation appeared. It seems that BAIC Group, which is quite persistent in acquiring the equity of CAR Inc, did not take any substantive action when the transaction deadline came. Another investment company that has been flirting with car companies for a long time has officially stood up, that is MBK? MBK Partnership Company not only wants to acquire the equity of the automobile company, but also makes a privatization offer to the automobile company. ..
In fact, some sources reported MBK in the middle of this year. Partners team is negotiating with BAIC about the privatization of auto companies, and auto companies are also negotiating with MBK? Partner negotiation. However, on August 2 1 day, CAR Inc issued a clarification announcement to deny it, saying that it did not cooperate with MBK? The partners discussed the privatization transaction.
According to the information, MBK? Partners is the first independent direct investment company in East Asia (China, South Korea and Japan). Before buying the equity of MBK Automobile Company? Partners already has the experience of investing in car rental services, holding shares in KT, the largest car rental company in Korea, and Ehi Car Rental, the second largest car rental company in China. In this regard, MBK? Partners is really a good candidate for the car company. ..
Why is the car company here?
According to official data, by the first half of 2020, the total fleet size of Che Inc. will reach 65,438+032,000 vehicles, with 2,882 direct service outlets in 65,438+0765,438+0 major cities and 265,438+in 65,438+059 smaller cities.
Why is such a huge car rental company suddenly in such a hurry to sell its equity? To answer this question, we must talk about the people behind the Shenzhou Department.
Lu, image source: official website, China
Lu is a business wizard. After gaining insight into business opportunities with his own strategic vision, he gained scale effect through rapid expansion, and then burned money to subsidize users. This is the success of Lu. In just over ten years, Lu has withdrawn from three listed companies and established his own business empire.
The first foundation of Lu's business empire was the automobile company ... In 2007, Lu officially founded the automobile co., Ltd. ... At that time, there were two mountains in the domestic car rental field-Supreme Car Rental and Hi Car Rental. The way for Lu to climb these two mountains is to expand the market scale quickly and burn money subsidies at all costs. In the second year of its establishment, CAR Inc expanded its vehicle scale to the second place in China, and then there was a subsidy war for several years. In this process, on the one hand, car companies raised funds from the capital market, on the other hand, they kept spending a lot of money, subsidized customers, bought cars to expand their scale, quickly took the lead and firmly controlled the position of the largest platform in the leasing market, and finally realized the listing of Hong Kong stocks in 20 14.
And after that? Lu's action is very direct and cashed out. Relevant data show that from June 20 15 to March 20 16, Lu and other CAR Inc. investors sold 42% of CAR Inc. shares to the market in nine months, and cashed in 1600 million dollars. Lu's departure brought huge fluctuations to the performance and share price of the automobile company, but it did not affect the foundation of the automobile company ... What really got the automobile company into debt was another major move.
At the end of 20 17, Qian, a senior executive of shenzhou department, left his post to establish Luckin Coffee, and then launched the subsidy model of burning money, which promoted the opening of stores on a large scale and quickly expanded the scale of stores and users. Is the routine exactly the same as the car company? The reason is simple, because there is the same person standing behind the two companies-Lu, who is not only the chairman of Luckin Coffee, but also the largest shareholder. 2065438+In May 2009, Luckin Coffee, which was founded less than two years ago, announced the registration of Dastak and completed the listing of US stocks. Before the "thunderbolt" of Luckin Coffee in early 2020, Qian Ceng announced that Luckin Coffee had 4,507 direct stores, and the number of stores in Luckin Coffee ranked first in other mainstream cities except Shanghai.
Luckin Coffee Shop, Image Source: Ruixing Automobile official website
After the rapid expansion of scale, Luckin Coffee's anti-China system also came quickly. On April 2, 2020, Luckin Coffee announced that it found that the company forged the transaction amount of 2.2 billion yuan from the second quarter of 2065438 to the fourth quarter of 2009, and the related costs increased accordingly. Ruixing bubble was quickly punctured, not only its share price plummeted, but also it was delisted by Nasdaq, and the whole China Department was dragged down. CAR Inc' s share price has halved, which is also worse for another new three-board listed company, Shenzhou UCAR, which was deeply involved in the debt crisis because of the acquisition of Baowo Automobile. The business empire that Lu once established began to shake, and he had to sell his assets to slim down and save himself. According to the official statement, with MBK? After the partner transaction is completed, UCAR will no longer hold CAR Inc. shares, and the proceeds from this transfer will be used to repay the company's corresponding CAR Inc. share pledge loan.
After hitting the wall one after another, the value went up.
However, there is also good news for auto companies ... Although it is dragged down by Ruixun incident and of course affected by COVID-19 epidemic, CAR Inc.' s financial situation is relatively poor (the financial report for the first half of 2020 shows that CAR Inc.' s total revenue in the first half of the year was 2.759 billion yuan, down 26.3% year-on-year. The company recorded a net loss of 4.338 billion yuan, compared with a net profit of 279 million yuan in the same period last year. The road to "selling yourself" was quite bumpy, but the value of CAR Inc turned around against the wind.
Compared with the stock price of HK$ 2.3/share, HK$ 3. 1 share and HK$ 3.4/share in previous trading agreements, what is the difference with MBK? The transaction price of partners is HK$ 4/share, and the transaction price has greatly increased. In addition, the trading price of HK$ 4 per share is 23.8% higher than CAR Inc' s closing price on the trading announcement date.
As for the reasons, from the acquirer's point of view, CAR Inc' s market position should be paid more attention. In terms of user activity and scale, CAR Inc is the strongest among similar enterprises in China, and MBK also has a layout in the car rental industry. CAR Inc' s market share and management experience are important resources for partners to further expand. In addition, the domestic epidemic prevention and control has been done well, and daily life has basically returned to normal. From the perspective of car rental business alone, car companies may hit bottom, MBK? Partners is obviously optimistic about the future market performance of auto companies.
So far, MBK? Partners has capital and CAR Inc has scale, so the combination of the two parties may achieve the expected effect. However, in just half a year or so, five buyers have been changed, which increases the uncertainty of this transaction. There must be a reason for jumping tickets in a short time. It may be that the conditions of the Shenzhou system are too harsh, or it may be that the "receiver" has discovered a potential crisis that is not easy to solve. Next, it depends on MBK. Whether the partners can overcome it.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.