2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 546 Yangtze Automobile
Meetings, meetings, endless meetings.

The share reform involves all sorts of meetings, meetings with different people, and Boss Tan has been getting a headache from all the meetings lately.

Even though he's been a boss for two lifetimes, Tan Jincheng doesn't really like meetings. Too many meetings inevitably lead to formalism. However, all the meetings for this share reform were necessary.

You need to hire intermediary agencies, lawyers, auditors, asset appraisers, and so on.

The shareholding reform of FlashDrive Technology has attracted the attention of many well-known intermediary institutions. As the electric vehicle company with the largest production and sales scale and the fastest development speed in China, FlashDrive Technology's shareholding reform is clearly aimed at listing.

Everyone wants a piece of the pie during the listing process of a leading company.

Leaving aside Tan Jincheng himself, just looking at the brand, you can tell how successful Flashcore is just by looking at its chip launch day.

Before Flash, Xinri was one of the first companies to implement branded operations. It was the fastest-growing electric vehicle company in China, with fast investment and high output. Moreover, it never had to worry about selling its products, and it was able to reap political achievements within a term of office.

Incidentally, it can also solve the problem of large-scale employment, which is another very impressive political achievement.

When introducing projects, there's no need to worry about the benefits of others benefiting from the work of predecessors. Local government officials love projects like this the most, and Zhang Congxun is always a guest of honor wherever he goes.

Compared to Chipstar, FlashDrive, being younger and developing faster, and receiving full support from the Beicang District, is more popular.

In some places, there's no need to build any industrial base; simply building a factory with an annual production capacity of around 10 to 20 vehicles would suffice.

Investing in an electric vehicle factory with an annual production capacity of around 10 to 20 vehicles doesn't require much money, and the construction period is very short. It really pleases Boss Tan, and even a small amount is enough to qualify for an investment attraction quota.

It's not bad.

Recently, due to the listing of Orange Technology, Tan Jincheng, who was already in a slump, has once again been pushed into the spotlight because of the restructuring of his core subsidiary, Flash Technology.

"One company is queuing up for an IPO, another is undergoing restructuring, and a new car company has been established. It seems that Boss Tan is really trying every means to raise funds in the capital market to build cars. He's really going all out."

"Isn't FlashTech not yet meeting the listing standards? And now they're starting to restructure? They want to go public as soon as they're three years old. Boss Tan is really impatient."

"I really hope that the intermediary agencies will get involved soon, so that we can see the full picture of Flash Technology's finances and see how many electric vehicles they sold last year."

Investment institutions are quite interested in FlashDrive Technology or the entire electric vehicle industry, but unfortunately, no company in the electric vehicle industry is currently listed, and their financial reports are completely opaque.

The data is more or less inaccurate, but it's good enough that we can even see it. If you want a comprehensive understanding, you'll have to spend a lot of money to do your own research, and even then, the data might not be accurate.

However, this audit process will allow us to gain a comprehensive understanding of these specific financial data.

By analyzing real data from leading companies, one can observe changes in the data across the entire industry, which is highly beneficial for investing in companies other than Flashpoint Technology.

While Boss Tan was at home working on the restructuring of Flash Technology, Huang Ming went to Xiangcheng again, accompanied by the inspection team from Beicang City Investment. Beicang City Investment had spared no expense to ensure the success of this acquisition.

Under the guise of investigating investment opportunities, a team led by Xie Junhong was formed. They went not only to Xiangcheng, but also to the neighboring provinces of Hubei and Anhui, both of which have vehicle manufacturing bases of Changfeng Group.

Huang Ming was mixed in with this inspection team.

The group first visited the Chuzhou vehicle assembly plant. Only through on-site inspection could they understand the company's strength and situation. The Chuzhou plant is the production base of Yangzi Pickup, which was acquired and established by Changfeng Group in 2005.

Anhui Gaoguanfeng Yangzi Automobile Company is jointly owned by Changfeng Group, Xinhua Lian and Yangzi Automobile, with Changfeng Group holding 55% of the shares and having absolute control.

"How did you decide to acquire Changfeng Group? I can only say you have excellent foresight."

In the hotel, Xie Hongjun looked at the data collected by the investigation team and sighed once again. Ever since he learned about Tan Jincheng's "snake swallowing an elephant" plan, Xie Hongjun found himself sighing more and more often.

The new generation surpasses the old.

Anhui Province is an indispensable force in the history of our automotive industry. Many of its brands, both big and small, have enjoyed great popularity, and Yangzi Pickup is one of them.

Yangzi Pickup is not a large company, with only about 500 employees. However, it has over 135 mid-to-senior level professional and technical personnel, and more than 40% of its employees have college or higher education. It owns 11 trademarks, including copyrights, and has as many as 130 design patents.

In addition to its flagship pickup trucks, Weilai Auto also has the capacity to produce SUVs, with an annual output of 5 units. It can be said that even if Weilai Auto only acquires the shares of Yangzi Auto held by Changfeng Group and takes over this industrial base, it can still independently launch a car manufacturing project.

"Haha, that's the same question I've been wondering about. I don't know how President Tan found out. To be honest, from the perspective of the group's car manufacturing, no company is more suitable for our group than Changfeng, even though it conflicts somewhat with the investment interests of ByteDance Engine."

Huang Ming laughed. He had heard Cheng Linfeng tell him how Boss Tan discovered Changfeng Group, but the story sounded too sci-fi and childish.

"At that time, the boss asked me to find all the listed companies in the A-share market that were engaged in the automobile business. Then he sat in front of the computer and looked at the stocks all day. After that, he wrote down a few companies for us to pay attention to, with a focus on Changfeng Group."

If you were to say it's stock investment, that would be understandable, since the boss had experience buying up SAIC stocks at rock-bottom prices before. But this is a backdoor listing and is linked to the group's car manufacturing plan. Is it really that frivolous?
Not only Huang Ming found it unbelievable, but even Cheng Linfeng didn't understand it at the time.

At that time, Cheng Linfeng did not know that Changfeng Group was used for a backdoor listing. He only thought that the boss wanted to buy stocks. From his perspective, although the company had a good reputation and was a state-owned enterprise, it was not the best choice for stock investment.

“Anhui Province’s car manufacturing industry is indeed stronger than Zhejiang Province’s. Not to mention companies like BYD that have gone global, even their own car manufacturing plants are very strong. Not to mention well-known companies like Chery, even small companies like Yangzi Automobile pay great attention to technical talent.”

With over 500 employees, about 30% of whom are technical personnel, although the overall educational level is not that high, it is, after all, an old state-owned enterprise. The shareholder behind Yangzi Automobile is Chuzhou City Investment, which was a state-owned enterprise before being acquired by Changfeng.

"Yes, it's a bit of a pity that the first company that President Tan acquired, Andar, started manufacturing cars in the 90s, but it didn't survive."

There are quite a few car brands that have survived in Anhui Province, such as Chery, JAC, Ankai, and the less well-known Xingma and Anchi. The Anchi brand is very similar to the Shanchi series.

Anchi Automobile, which mainly produces microvans, microbuses, and small SUVs, also announced an expansion plan at the end of 2007. It planned to make two rounds of investment totaling 30 billion yuan between 2007 and 2013 to increase its production capacity to 12.5 vehicles per year.

Whether it's a real investment or a fake one, and regardless of whether the amount is exaggerated, daring to say something like that in such a competitive era as the automotive industry shows that they're doing alright.

However, according to the boss, it was mostly bragging. With an annual production of 12.5 vehicles and an investment of six years, how could 30 billion yuan be needed? It would be enough to invest while selling.

These are all local brands that originated in Anhui Province. I just don't know if the boss named the company Shanchi and Anchi were related.

"How much longer until Mr. Zhang arrives?"

Having failed to find out from Huang Ming why he had taken a liking to Changfeng Group, Xie Junhong gave up on the matter and instead asked Zhang Yong, whom he referred to as President Zhang.

After signing the contract with Foton, Zhang Yong also took on the title of director at the engine company, essentially acting as a representative of Weilai Automobile.

Originally, he still had to handle some matters related to the engine company in the capital. However, in order to make this acquisition and cooperation seem more like an action by Weilai Automobile, Tan Jincheng arranged for Zhang Yong and Xie Junhong's group to meet and attend this inspection tour.

The appointment of the new general manager of Weilai Auto makes it hard to associate Flash Technology with a backdoor listing.

Xie Junhong came to Chuzhou earlier to wait for Zhang Yong's arrival. In Anhui Province, even if it's not in Yicheng, Shanchi Group has a certain home advantage. This time, the Chuzhou side was responsible for receiving them.

"Soon, he should arrive tomorrow. He's already in Luzhou."

Huang Ming was also curious about Zhang Yong. This was someone that President Tan personally went to the capital to persuade to join the company. In addition, his treatment was on the same level as Sun Tongyu's. A villa was prepared for him even before he took office.

You should know that he didn't even receive this treatment.

"That's good. Speaking of which, Mr. Zhang is a professional. He knows more about technology than us investors. His joining will make things easier for us."

"Yes, we're good at investing and acquiring companies, but we're not really good at technology."

Huang Ming wasn't envious of Zhang Yong's treatment; he was just a little curious. Weilai Automobile would definitely be the most important project for the entire Shanchi Group in the future, and President Tan had entrusted such a big project to someone who sold heavy trucks.

This matter has caused quite a bit of discussion within the group. Although ByteDance Engine has been separated from the group's overall structure for the sake of investment convenience, according to President Tan's plan, it is still a subsidiary of Flash Group.

The company's securities business has almost come to a standstill this year, with all its efforts focused on this acquisition in order to support Weilai Motors.

I wonder if the new CEO will feel any pressure?
(End of this chapter)