WM Motor, which was in the "ICU", had another turn for the better. On September 11, Kaixin Auto (Nasdaq: KXIN) officially announced that it had signed a non-binding letter of intent for merger and acquisition with WM Motor Holdings Limited ("WM Motor"), and planned to issue a certain number of new shares to acquire 100% of the equity held by its shareholders.
Just three days ago, Weimar's backdoor listing of Apollo Travel (00860.HK) just fell through. On September 8, Apollo Travel announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that the relevant parties have agreed to terminate the acquisition agreement of Weimar, so the acquisition and placement will not proceed.
As one of the first new car-making forces in China, WM Motor has long lost its prestige. Since its establishment in 2015, WM Motor has sold only about 100,000 cars, and has long been seriously lagging behind among new forces.
Since 2022, WM Motor has experienced negative consequences one after another, including the stagnation of new car research and development projects, arrears with supplier accounts, which has led to the supply of core parts being cut off, factories suspending production, and dealers closing stores, etc. According to Tianyancha, WM Motor currently has information on multiple persons subject to execution, with the total amount being executed exceeding 590 million yuan. In addition, there are also consumption restriction orders and multiple equity freezing information.
What is Kaixin Auto’s intention to acquire WM Motor, known as “Guima”?
Kaixin Auto is a Nasdaq-listed company and a sales platform for luxury second-hand cars and imported new cars. Joining hands with WM Motor once again proves this used car platform’s ambition to build cross-border cars. In recent years, Kaixin Auto has been trying to transform from a car dealer network into a player in the electric vehicle market.
Public information shows that Kaixin Auto Holdings was established in 2015 and is a subsidiary of Renren.com, formerly known as Renren Automobile. Initially, Kaixin Auto's main business was automobile finance. In 2018, Kaixin Auto officially launched its second-hand car business and is currently one of the major dealers in China's luxury second-hand car market. In May 2019, Kaixin Auto was listed on Nasdaq.
When acquiring WM Motor, Kaixin Automobile focused on its car-making capabilities.
In the announcement, Kaixin Automobile emphasized that WM currently has two Industry 4.0 standard intelligent manufacturing bases, the Wenzhou production base and the Huanggang production base. WM Motor is the first among the new car-making forces and one of the rare representative companies in a long time to have both an intelligent manufacturing base and two new energy vehicle production qualifications. It is also the first car company among the new car-making forces to realize the digitization of the entire industry chain.
In addition, Kaixin Auto also mentioned that WM Motor is a new energy smart vehicle enterprise with full capabilities in design, R&D (hardware and software), supply chain management, vehicle and battery pack manufacturing, online digital marketing, offline sales and services, and auto finance. It has its own core technologies in the fields of vehicle integration, three-electric system, smart cockpit, and autonomous driving.
In fact, before the proposed acquisition of WM Motor, Kaixin Automobile had already made frequent moves in the field of car manufacturing.
According to the official website, Kaixin Automobile has been actively looking for outstanding new energy manufacturing companies as merger and acquisition targets since it established its new energy vehicle division in August 2021.
On September 26, 2022, Kaixin Auto officially announced that it had signed a binding letter of intent for merger and acquisition with the micro electric vehicle company Wuxi Maolinstar Technology Co., Ltd. (MorningStar, hereinafter referred to as "MorningStar"), and planned to issue a certain number of new shares to acquire 100% of the equity held by its shareholders.
According to the official website of Kaixin Auto, Maolinstar mainly produces micro electric vehicles. At present, Kaixin Auto has received purchase requirements for at least 50,000 electric vehicles of various types. After acquiring Maolinstar, it will also focus on automobile exports and vigorously promote overseas business layout.
On August 23, 2023, Kaixin Auto announced on its official website that the acquisition of MORNING STAR AUTO INC. (referred to as MORNINGSTAR) was completed. MORNINGSTAR has officially become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kaixin Auto, which represents Kaixin Auto's official entry into the new energy vehicle manufacturing field.
The financial report shows that Kaixin Auto’s revenue in 2022 is US$82.84 million, with a net loss of US$84.706 million (approximately 620 million yuan). As of press time, Kaixin Auto has risen nearly 8%.