Seres Group to Acquire Majority Stake in Seres Electric for $176.53 million
TapTechNews June 11th news, the Seres Group just issued an announcement, announcing that the company's board of directors reviewed and passed the Motion Regarding Chongqing Seres New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., intending that the holding subsidiary, Seres Automobile, would acquire the 55% equity of Seres Electric held by Jingyun Chuangfu and SAI New Fund according to the agreement, and the corresponding purchase price is about 1.254 billion yuan ($176.53 million).
TapTechNews found out through inquiry that due to being involved in the suspension rumors of the Seres SF5 back then, Xiaokang Stock (only announced the name change to Seres in July 2022 ) in January 2022 announced to jointly invest in the intelligent electric vehicle parts and components assembly project with the Chongqing state-owned capital to improve the delivery capacity of high-end new energy vehicles.
According to the Xiaokang announcement at that time, in order to conform to the development trend of the automotive industry and implement the company's new energy vehicle strategy, optimize the production capacity layout, and improve the delivery capacity of new high-end new energy vehicle models, Xiaokang Stock decided to invest in the establishment of the Seres Electric Company.
The relevant government investment platform company in Chongqing plans to invest in the Seres Electric Company to improve the production capacity of the company's high-end intelligent electric vehicles.
Specifically, Chongqing Jingyun Chuangfu Enterprise Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jingyun Chuangfu) and the special fund established by the state-owned sole proprietorship enterprise Chongqing Development Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the special fund), together with Xiaokang Stock and its controlling shareholder Xiaokang Holdings and Jinkang New Energy, signed the Investment Agreement, and Jinkang New Energy, the special fund, and Jingyun Chuangfu jointly established the Seres Electric to construct and operate the Seres Intelligent Electric Vehicle Parts and Components Assembly Project.
The registered capital of this joint venture company is 2 billion yuan: Jinkang New Energy plans to invest 900 million yuan, accounting for 45% of the registered capital; Jingyun Chuangfu and the special fund invest 800 million yuan and 300 million yuan respectively, accounting for 40% and 15%. As one of the investors of the joint venture company, the special fund is mainly established by the Chongqing Development Investment Co., Ltd. with an investment of 303 million yuan. And the Chongqing Development Investment Co., Ltd. was established in August 2018 and is a state-owned sole proprietorship company established with the approval of the Chongqing Municipal People's Government. The Chongqing Municipal Finance Bureau represents the Chongqing Municipal Government to exercise the responsibilities of the investor, and the registered capital of the company is 10 billion yuan.
According to the fund arrangement, the investment funds of the joint venture company will be paid in three installments by the special fund, Jingyun Chuangfu, and Jinkang New Energy. Among them, Jinkang New Energy pays the first installment of 200 million yuan; and within three working days after the preconditions stipulated in the investment agreement are met, the special fund will pay 200 million yuan to the joint venture company, and Jingyun Chuangfu will pay 700 million yuan to the joint venture company.
Xiaokang Automobile stated that this introduction of the government investment platform to become a shareholder will support the development of the new energy vehicle business, and the joint venture company will still be included in the scope of the consolidated financial statements of the listed company. The special project constructed and operated by the joint venture company is one of the important layouts for the company to develop the new energy vehicle strategy, which is beneficial to improving the intelligent manufacturing level of the company's high-end intelligent electric vehicles and enhancing the mass production capacity of high-end intelligent electric vehicles.