As Chunghwa Group embarks on its cross-border journey, the other two major domestic auto companies are also fighting for their own international solutions.

The new auto industry policy encourages cross-border mergers by Chinese companies, but there is no clear statement on how to implement them, so the competition between SAIC and Nanqi for Rover Motors is more like a farce of Chinese infighting.

Rover Motors is not doing well under the control of the Phoenix consortium and has been looking to sell to foreign countries, so a mature British brand with its own core technology is very valuable for Chinese companies eager to develop their own car brands.

SAIC has learned a lot of experience in the acquisition of South Korea's Ssangyong Automobile Company, especially the longer it drags on, the more the depreciation of the other party's assets will be, and the more it can reduce the price. The ideal state is to be like General Motors, drag Daewoo Motors to bankruptcy, and only end up pocketing the other party for only one-tenth of the price.

Although the integration of Ssangyong Automobile has been advertised to the outside world as effective, only the top management of SAIC Motor knows how difficult it is to manage transnational vehicles, and although Ssangyong Automobile is affiliated with SAIC, it basically cannot control the practices of the Korean management. Open the official website of Ssangyong Automobile, there is no trace of SAIC on it. Therefore, when negotiating the acquisition of Rover Motors, SAIC was cautious and did not rush to achieve results.

In order to give an account to the British government and force SAIC to sign the contract as soon as possible, the Phoenix consortium unilaterally released the news of the 900 million pound acquisition agreement between SAIC and Raffoda.

In fact, this is only a framework agreement, and SAIC did not finally agree, because after a financial investigation, they found that the situation of Rover Motors was worse than imagined, and there was a financial black hole. The more than 200 million pounds of cash on the account alone is missing, which makes SAIC afraid of falling into a financial trap.

What's more, the more you know about Rover Motors, the more SAIC feels that Rover Motors may face the risk of bankruptcy at any time.

One is in a hurry to get married, the other is not in a hurry to marry, and both parties have their own little calculations. In the end, Rover, who was still married, couldn't hold it back, because they couldn't afford it anymore.

In order to prove its sincerity, Rover agreed to transfer its core technology, including Rover's 1.1L-2.5L full range of engines, and two core technology platforms of Type 25 and Type 75, to SAIC Motor for a price of 67 million pounds.

As for the 45-type technology platform, it was derived from Honda's technical support to Rover back then, and when it was learned that Rover was going to be sold to China, Japan took back the 45-type platform and destroyed it all. Automobiles are a collection of mechanical processes and intellectual property rights, and the Japanese side is worried about technology leakage and would rather destroy it than let the Chinese get it.

It stands to reason that Rover also took a dowry in order to marry himself, and SAIC should have something to say.

But at this time, SAIC temporarily refused to sign the acquisition agreement on the grounds that the after-sales service of millions of Rover cars on the market could not be negotiated. If it is to receive millions of cars for the after-sales service, this amount is up to more than a billion pounds, which is a bomb that SAIC is unwilling to take over.

The British were angry that the merger change had left the British angry, hoping that investors from China would save the troubled Rover Motors, but SAIC Motor instead announced that it would suspend the acquisition negotiations after getting what it wanted, and would resume negotiations only after Rover Motors sorted out its financial situation.

The Phoenix consortium and the British government are no longer willing to inject funds, and the century-old Rover Motors officially declared bankruptcy, and the creditors entrusted PricewaterhouseCoopers to manage the follow-up asset disposal.

SAIC successfully dragged the Rover car to death using the procrastination trick and got the opportunity to pick up the body and copy the bottom.

Rover's core technology has been sold to SAIC, and the rest are fixed assets, which are not worth much compared to technology.

When SAIC was about to touch Rover's body, Nanqi suddenly appeared, intending to compete with SAIC for the remaining assets of Rover Automobile.

Nanqi was assigned to the management of Suwu Province, and the province planned to build a strong automobile province with Nanqi as the leader, so Nanqi was endorsed by the local government and had sufficient confidence to compete with SAIC. Although SAIC took away the engine and the two major platforms, Rover's remaining complete production line and relatively old MG model platform are still attractive to NAIC.

Only by dismantling this complete production line back to China can it resume production immediately and become the trump card in the hands of NAIC.

The joint venture between NAIC and Fiat was not a success, and the Fiat Group could not take care of the Chinese market due to its own infighting, so NAIC had to find another way to go.

If Rover Automobile is acquired back, Nanqi can get a relatively well-known foreign car brand, and it can also provide assistance for its own brand, killing two birds with one stone at home and abroad.

"Even if Rover Motors only has a pile of scrap copper and rotten iron, it is better than us groping around in the garbage heap alone. Nanqi has been delayed a lot by the times, and this time we must seize the opportunity to take down Rover Motors. ”

Under the instructions of the main leaders of the province, Nanqi began to desperately snatch food from SAIC's mouth, intending to snatch Rover Motors, which was already considered by SAIC to be in the bag. Of course, this is also thanks to SAIC's success in hollowing out Rover Motors, which greatly reduced its value and allowed the not wealthy Nanqi to bear it.

The two Chinese auto companies are fighting for face, which is good news for the custodian PwC. Only competition can sell Rover Motors at a good price and give creditors a reasonable explanation.

The sudden appearance of NAIC made SAIC very angry, and it was about to succeed in reducing prices, but now there is a spoiler in China.

After negotiating the assets that can be won for 1 yuan, now the price has risen to 5 yuan in the competition, and SAIC is very dissatisfied with NAIC. found the competent department to complain, but was not soft or hard by Nanqi back, and the one with the highest market competition price was won.

At first, the two parties intended to jointly acquire Rover Motors, but they could not agree on the dominance of the acquisition after the completion of the acquisition. The root cause behind this is that both parties belong to different local SASACs, and they must consider their local governments. Without higher-level coordination, the two local interests cannot coexist.

Among the assets entrusted by Rover, in addition to the complete production line, the two intangible car brands Rover and MG are valuable, especially Rover has a certain reputation around the world. However, the ownership of the Rover brand had to be agreed by Ford, which acquired Land Rover vehicles and received the right of first refusal from BMW. If Ford is interested in acquiring the Rover brand, it will not be able to use the brand in Chinese cars in the future, but the MG brand will be able to use it.

In the end, PricewaterhouseCoopers chose Nanqi, which offered a higher bid, and sold all the remaining assets of Rover Motors to Nanqi. The bid of nearly 60 million pounds also basically hollowed out Nanqi's family funds. Although SAIC Motor had significantly increased their offer towards the close, they had previously made a bid of £20 million, which was considered insincere by PwC. In the end, the cooked duck of SAIC was snatched from the mouth of Nanqi, and the two companies formed a grudge.

It was very dramatic that the original whole Rover Motors was split in two by two Chinese auto companies, each with half of the assets, and coincidentally announced that they were the biggest winners. This cross-border merger and acquisition was also called the "Shangnan robbery" incident by the domestic media.

The Rover brand has also been taken back by Ford, and Ford may use it as the main brand of its European strategy, and it is not a problem to resurrect the Rover brand according to Ford's technology, and it can also avoid the embarrassment of the Land Rover brand being touched.

SAIC Motor and NAIC each acquired half of Rover Motors, and intend to develop their own brands based on this. SAIC Motor established the "Roewe" brand of British Fan, while NAIC continued to use the MG brand, and the models to be put into production by the two sides are very similar and originate from the same mother, so they form a fierce competition with each other.

The competition between SAIC and NAIC for Rover Automobile actually harms the interests of the Chinese state, because the funds acquired by the two local automobile companies are actually state-owned assets, and the invisible price increase in vicious competition has caused the state to spend more money on acquisitions, and the infighting has also seriously affected the country's image.

Therefore, after the incident of "snatching relatives from the south," the State Council held a special meeting to study this issue, and the consent of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce must be obtained for Chinese enterprises to carry out large-scale cross-border capital mergers and acquisitions in the future, and vicious competition among domestic enterprises is not allowed. In the case of a number of domestic enterprises looking at the same goal, they will first PK in China, and select the most suitable enterprises to be pressed by the state and compete with other country mergers and acquisitions.

"Going abroad represents the image of China, and we can't let outsiders benefit from the wall. Large-scale cross-border mergers and acquisitions are a new challenge for our enterprises, which need to be continuously improved in practice to prevent the loss of state-owned assets. ”

The Prime Minister instructed at the meeting.

As the company with the most successful mergers and acquisitions in the world and the largest number of car brands, General Motors has always been the global automotive hegemon. However, with the rise in global oil prices, General Motors finally slowed down its growth and opened the curtain from prosperity to decline.

Despite its strong performance in the Chinese market, GM's sales in the U.S. have been overtaken by Japanese brands due to rising gasoline prices, and sales have been declining.

What's even more fatal is that GM has to pay an average of 2.4 retired employees for every active employee due to the heavy burden of worker benefits, including current employees, retired employees and their families, as many as 1.1 million people, more than the total population of Detroit. At the end of 2002, GM's pension deficit account was $19.3 billion, while its net profit for the year was only $1.5 billion. As a last resort, we have no choice but to bridge this huge gap by issuing corporate bonds.

Compared with Toyota, GM's labor cost per car is as high as $2,200, while the cost of the Japanese plant in North America is only $250. The huge gap is that Toyota doesn't have the huge worker welfare burden of General Motors.

This is also the case at Ford and Chrysler, because of the presence of the United Auto Workers (UA) organization among the three companies, which has infiltrated the three major automakers and their subordinate parts suppliers.

In order to maintain the high welfare benefits of workers, UA often threatens to strike at every turn, which leads to the continuous compromise of the management of the three major American automobile companies and the cultivation of a monster of huge benefits. The benefits received in one of the companies will be extended to the other two companies at the same time.

As a result, the three major U.S. auto giants have to pay huge welfare expenses in the cost of automobiles, so they cannot compete with Japanese companies on an equal footing.

Japanese companies, on the other hand, have built factories in the United States to avoid UA's sphere of influence and have not let their subsidiaries receive the influence of UA, so they have a price advantage in the competition with American brands.

On the one hand, it is difficult to sell American cars due to rising oil prices, and on the other hand, they have to bear a huge and heavy welfare burden, which makes the three major American auto companies begin to struggle and have to carry out strategic contraction.

Some experts predict that large conglomerates like General Motors and Ford, which have multiple sub-brands, are very likely to be unable to withstand the pressure and one day disintegrate on the spot.

At that time, it will be the best opportunity for Chinese auto companies.