Weimar Auto "breaks" Hong Kong stocks

"China Economic Weekly" special writer Zou Songlin

Shen Hui, the founder of Weimar Automobile, said in 2017 that the automotive market is not a market for winners, and a new car company can live a good annual sales of 100,000 vehicles. However, in 2021, when the three "Wei Xiaoli" had "lived well", Wima Automobile's annual sales were less than 50,000.

On June 1, with unsatisfactory sales and huge losses, the prospectus of Weimar Automobile appeared in the new batch of IPO application list disclosed by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Start a good card at the beginning, from the first horse to the bottom to catch up with

In the new forces of car -building companies, if Weimar Motors is a pioneer, I am afraid that few people will not accept it. Weimar Automobile not only first owns an independent production base in the new forces of automobiles, but also the first one to obtain production qualifications. Even the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology forbids the last company to pass the vehicle -building qualification before the province.

The huge first -mover advantage made the Weimar car running in the first group "fast horse and whip". On the 2018 new power sales list, Weimar Motors ranked second, second only to Weilai Motors.

But running is not fast enough, it also means backward. From the perspective of growth alone, Wima's sales in 2021 were 44,000 units, an increase of 96%compared to 2020. It can be regarded as proud in many industries in many industries, but this is not enough to win in the new energy vehicles. In 2021, the sales of "Wei Xiaoli" exceeded 90,000 vehicles, and Nezha cars sold nearly 70,000 vehicles. Wima, a pioneer, has now become a catch -up.

At present, the new forces of cars have not yet been profitable. However, Weimar Motors not only sells less than others, but also loses more than others. According to the prospectus, Weimar Automobile's losses from 2019-2021 were 4.044 billion yuan, 4.25 billion yuan, and 5.363 billion yuan, respectively. Among them, the loss in 2021 even exceeded Xiaopeng, becoming the bottom of the year.

The positioning is blurred and the foothold is difficult

In terms of product positioning, the main model of Weimar Motors that adheres to the "technological inclusiveness" is between 150,000 and 250,000 yuan. Although this is a market segment that is generally considered to have greatly enhanced the market penetration rate in the future, it is also the most intense market. In addition to the new forces of cars, traditional car companies such as BYD and GAC Ean are also watching, and BYD has announced the full suspension of fuel vehicles.

Among the many competing products, Weimar Motors looked blurred. Weilai Automobile's user service, Xiaopeng Automobile's intelligence, and the mileage solution of the ideal car have gradually become the brand potential of the market from the product label. The highlights such as customization and automatic parking of Weimar Automobile's "Thousands of Cars and Thousands" have not yet been made into a word of mouth. Instead, they have been widely criticized due to the problem of "spontaneous combustion+electricity". exposure.

In addition, although it is the "new" force, Weimar Automobile chose the "old" dealer model to do marketing, not the direct -operating model adopted by Xiaopeng Automobile. The establishment of the dealer model in the fuel vehicle era is based on high sales and strong brand power. The inventory and sales pressure of dealers are relatively small. For new brands with low sales and unclear market advantages, it is difficult to find high -quality dealers endorsed to increase market penetration rates, and they will affect sales channels because dealers cannot bear the inventory pressure "retreat". There was a Weimar car dealer mentioned in the earlier news report that the inventory vehicle has accumulated for 2 to 3 months, and the industry warning line is about 1.5 months.

Is it or end? Listing financing or renewal fairy grass

The founder Shen Hui once responded to the problem of "falling behind" Weimar's "falling behind" in the interview: "New energy vehicles are a long -term track, playing an analogy, just like playing football. I don’t know who wins and who is defeated. "

However, the mall is non -stadium, because there are almost no teams to leave the game in advance, but many of us are rare in car -making companies to collapse. To hear the final whistle, you must be present. For Weimar Motors, the priority is to reduce losses and expand financing, and Li Bao does not punish the red card due to the fund chain.

Building new energy vehicles burning money is a consensus. In the case of high capital expenditure such as facilities construction, R & D investment, and high cost of raw material, new energy vehicle companies in losses need to achieve scale effects by expanding production and sales to reduce unit costs. Or push revenue through price increases and finally increase gross profit margins.

However, the scale effect is not obvious in Weimar Motors. Although the overall hair loss rate has continued to narrow in the past 3 years, the hair loss rate of the car and component sales business alone has always maintained at more than 50%. From 2019 to 2021 , 50.4%, 54.6%. Since March of this year, the production plan and model price of some models of Weimar Motors will be gradually adjusted, and the impact on sales will be observed.

In 2021, Weimar Automobile's operating activities and investment activities had a net outflow of 4.18 billion yuan, with a short -term loan of 3.03 billion yuan at the end of the year, and 4.156 billion yuan in cash and equivalent. In the case of tight funds, it is not difficult to understand that the R & D investment of Weimar Automobile is far lower than "Wei Xiaoli".

Nevertheless, Weimar Motor still mentioned in the prospectus that one model will be launched every year in the next few years. The M7 model with a range of 700 kilometers in the second half of this year was highly hoped. In addition, Weimar Automobile will use the funds raised for the research and development and upgrade of the modular automobile development platform, and will also be used for the research and development of OTA technology. After drinking hate science and innovation board, the fundamentals have not changed

Since it is not possible to rely on their own operations, it is particularly important to continue to expand financing. As of March this year, Wima Automobile has completed the PRE-IPO round of financing with a total amount of about 600 million US dollars. At present, the cumulative financing amount is about 35 billion yuan.

The capital market is the "market" of trading companies. In this sense, Weimar Automobile vividly interprets "getting up early and late". Weilai Automobile landed in U.S. stocks in September 2018. It is now listed on the US stocks, Hong Kong stocks, and the Singapore stock market. Ideal Automobile and Xiaopeng Automobile Relay were listed on the US stocks in July and August 2020. , Make full use of market resources of the two places.

In 2020, Weimar Motors announced the impact of the "first share of the new energy of science and technology board", but after the listing counseling was completed last year, there was no following.

In this regard, some market participants analyzed that Weimar Auto sprint science and technology boards were blocked. One was that the shareholders of Weimar Motors were too complicated; the other was that the lawsuit with Geely Group was still in progress. The group compensation for Weimar Automobile is about 2.1 billion yuan. The judgment is expected to be issued at the end of 2022; the third is that the financial data is not ideal and the core technology content is low. Today's impacting Hong Kong stock IPO is another attempt to log in to the capital market.

After a year, the above problems have not been effectively resolved. In addition, since 2020, the former General Manager of the Travel Department, the former chief retail officer, and the co -founder Lu Bin, have left the employees one after another.

To the Ministry of Field Securities, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the Chinese market in 2022 will significantly higher. However, the high price of raw materials and the high inflation environment will put forward more demanding requirements for the supply chain management capabilities, vertical integration efficiency, scale effect, brand and product power of car companies, and the differentiation of new energy vehicle companies will intensify in 2022.

If it is successfully landing in Hong Kong stocks, Weimar Automobile can confront the "Wei Xiaoli" confrontation at the capital level. After survival and development, you can also wait for the Dongfeng of the mid -range market to volume.

The brand name of "Weimar" is taken from the German World Champion, but even if there is a heart that wants to be a champion, you have to find your own advantage positioning. Return to the head, the road is long and long, and the Hong Kong stock market is just the first level on this road.

(This article published in "China Economic Weekly", No. 11, 2022)

The cover of the 11th issue of "China Economic Weekly" in 2022

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