Crisis is both a challenge and an opportunity!

Now that the American butterfly has stirred up the global financial crisis, the butterfly from China can also dance and cause turmoil in other regions.

SAIC's acquisition of South Korea's Ssangyong Automobile is considered to be the pioneer of China's automobile industry going abroad, but it did not expect to spend 500 million US dollars to win Ssangyong Automobile but it has been unable to integrate, and the contradictions between China and the labor union cannot be reconciled, and it has experienced hundreds of millions of US dollars in losses for several consecutive years.

Originally, I hoped to rely on the Chinese market to save Ssangyong car sales, but I didn't expect that the unique Ssangyong car was not popular in the domestic market, which made SAIC's previous wishful thinking fail.

Ssangyong Motor's annual sales of SUVs are close to 100,000 units, half of which are exported to the European market, and less than 30% of domestic sales in South Korea. With the rise in oil prices and the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis, sales in the European market have fallen sharply, and the Korean market cannot compete with the Hyundai-Kia brand, Ssangyong Motors is facing serious difficulties.

Against this backdrop, SAIC Motor planned to adjust its production plan and reduce inventory to ease the pressure on capital turnover, but it was rejected by the Ssangyong labor union on the grounds that the shutdown would affect workers' labor income.

As a result, the conflict between the Chinese side and the Ssangyong trade union broke out again, and the union led more than 7,000 workers in the factory to launch a "jade crushing strike", and the entire production line was paralyzed.

It seems that the combination of SAIC and Ssangyong is a mistake, Ssangyong Automobile Union has never given SAIC a good look, SAIC spent a lot of money to marry a wife who looked down on him, and was complained all day long about stealing technology to move equipment back to her mother-in-law's house. In addition to the formal increase in sales revenue in the financial report, SAIC has not been able to control the trend of Ssangyong Automobile.

Every year, 200 million US dollars are invested to maintain the operation of Ssangyong Motors, and the rewards of investment are not proportional, and SAIC's patience is exhausted little by little. I thought it would be a hen that lays eggs, but I didn't expect it to be a steer who just eats and doesn't do anything and stirs things around. As a result, the idea of divorce arose, and just as Ssangyong Labor Union went on strike, SAIC Motor withheld the $80 million operating expenses that were to be issued.

SAIC and Ssangyong fought, but it was the suppliers who suffered for it, among which DSI from Australia was the most seriously injured.

As an international independent supplier of AT transmissions, DSI's products are not so perfect but sufficient, and Ssangyong Motors has always been their largest customer. Another reliance is on Ford Motor, but Ford is now in a deep crisis and has slashed production capacity at its Australian plant, so DSI is even worse.

DSI has been trying to find a savior in the Chinese market, and when it encountered the subprime mortgage financial crisis, it finally couldn't stand it anymore and announced that it had entered a state of bankruptcy and reorganization.

Although Chunghwa Group has mastered the 3AT entry technology, it is still a novice in the field of AT transmissions and continues to explore on its own. Now that DSI has announced bankruptcy and reorganization, Han Hao's first thought is to hope to take over its subsidiaries and officially upgrade the 3AT of Zhonghua Group to 6AT at once.

As long as DSI is swallowed, relying on the digestion capacity of Zhonghua Group, it should soon be able to master the stable and reliable 6AT technology, and can instantly enter the international advanced level and stand on the same starting line with those multinational giants to enter the 8AT field.

When DSI encountered difficulties before, Chung Hwa Group grabbed a lot of talents in Australia to set up AT studios, but two years have passed with little success. Now that they have the opportunity to win DSI directly, the drawings of their AT transmissions with intellectual property rights alone are a huge asset for the Chinese.

"We are very interested in becoming the new owner of DSI as soon as we get in touch with DSI shareholders in Australia. In the future, DSI will be able to rely on the Chunghwa Group's sales growth and continue the development path of AT transmissions. ”

Han Hao hurriedly instructed the financial officer Yin Qingxun to intervene in the merger and acquisition, DSI is a chicken rib for foreign auto giants, but it is a treasure for companies like Zhonghua Group that continue to aspire to make breakthroughs in AT.

Although CVT technology is available, the shortcomings of poor CVT matching in the face of high-torque and large-displacement engines are exposed. In the future, Jaguar Land Rover and its own 2.0-liter engine will be equipped with a 6-speed automatic transmission that will be more effective than a CVT.

With the sharp rise in China's stock market and the landing of its new companies on the stock market, Han Hao's net worth has risen from $20 billion to $36 billion.

However, these are all paper wealth, because net worth fluctuates with the stock market, and once the stock price falls, it will evaporate a lot.

But when it comes to real and controllable net worth, under the operation of Yin Qingxun, Han Hao cashed out many stocks, and the amount of funds available in his name rose from less than 10 billion yuan to 40 billion yuan, all of which were hard currencies composed of cash, treasury bonds, gold, etc.

Before the subprime mortgage financial crisis spread to China's financial market, Han Hao realized a wave of buying low and selling high. The acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover, and even the funds reserved for the acquisition of Volvo, are all capital operations after the stock market rises. If you really want to investigate the source, it is the contribution of 300,000 new shareholders who open accounts every day, and they voted with their feet to transfer the funds to Han Hao's hands.

Even if Zhonghua Group goes bankrupt and goes bankrupt, Han Hao can get out with limited liability and easily maintain the life of a rich man with more than 10 billion funds.

If it weren't for Han Hao's commitment to not reduce the holdings of major shareholders on a large scale, and to maintain the position of the largest shareholder's controlling power, according to Yin Qingxun's expected operation, the amount of this figure would have to increase by 50%, and the company would have to sell it at a high price and then absorb it back at a low price, and the company's equity would remain unchanged and perfectly achieve a huge amount of wealth appreciation.

Having said that, if you want to buy DSI, there is one more thing that is indispensable, and that is the road path opened by the state. Without the approval of the National Development and Reform Commission, Zhonghua Group was unable to complete the acquisition of a transmission manufacturer abroad.

"Why is it China Group again, their sense of smell is too sensitive, right? As soon as DSI announced that it had entered a state of bankruptcy and reorganization, they planned to acquire others!"

The officials in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission were surprised to see such an application, Jaguar Land Rover has not yet reached a conclusion, and Zhonghua Group wants to do things abroad again.

The news that SAIC wants to break up with Ssangyong Automobile has been communicated internally with the National Development and Reform Commission, and as the first attempt of cross-border mergers and acquisitions of domestic car companies, SAIC Ssangyong project has basically failed. It is precisely because of the failure of the project that the National Development and Reform Commission is much more cautious in approving the projects of car companies going abroad for mergers and acquisitions.

However, compared to a project as large as Jaguar Land Rover, DSI is estimated to be worth no more than $200 million, which is affordable even if it fails.

However, the National Development and Reform Commission did not immediately approve the cross-border M&A project because they had a deeper level of consideration.

It is a shame to say that among the hundreds of large and small automobile companies registered in China, only Zhonghua Group has really developed automatic transmissions, and they are far ahead in the CVT field. Even state-owned giants such as FAW and SAIC have failed to come up with an automatic transmission that can be mass-produced on the road, resulting in China spending up to $4 billion a year on automatic transmission imports, a figure that continues to increase along with strong consumer demand for automatic transmission cars in China.

Although Zhonghua Group has put its CVT products in the independent Shenzhou Precision Industry Company, and has also agreed to sell its own CVT products to the outside world, the actual results are not satisfactory.

Just from the annual import amount of automatic transmissions of up to 4 billion US dollars from major car companies, it can be seen that Zhonghua Group does not export many CVTs.

The main reason is that Zhonghua Group can't take care of its own use, and its products occupy the mainstream market of low-end automatic transmission vehicles in China by virtue of the advantages of independent CVT. In order to maintain its leading position, it is a strategic need for Zhonghua Group to sell products significantly behind its own models, and the prices are not cheap.

The second is that other domestic car companies are reluctant to help Shenzhou Seiko's business, they are afraid of being stuck by the Zhonghua Group and funding the growth of rivals, so they prefer to purchase high-priced products from abroad. In addition, products from international brands such as Aisin, ZF, and JATCO can be used as a good marketing selling point in addition to excellent quality.

One party is unwilling to sell, and the other party is unwilling to buy, resulting in an embarrassing situation of domestic automatic transmissions.

Chery had previously learned that Zhonghua Group had invested heavily in CVT research and development, but it had not achieved results for several years, which also brought other car companies to retreat.

Market for technology is the guiding ideology of China's automotive industry, so the National Development and Reform Commission intends to unite more than 10 domestic manufacturers with demand for automatic transmissions, form an OEM alliance to negotiate with foreign companies, and ask the other party to share the advanced automatic transmission business with the OEM alliance.

In this way, key technologies can be obtained, and the cost of technology introduction can be shared, so that enterprises will not cause waste of resources. After the purchase, it is hoped that all enterprises will work together to tackle key problems and overcome this technology to achieve independent production, so as not to be subject to foreign-funded enterprises.

In fact, the OEM alliance guarantees the number of products purchased every year to attract foreign brands to build factories in China, and with a certain demand for technology transfer, continue to take the road of market for technology.

In 1995, the state negotiated an agreement with Bosch of Germany to form a 50:50 joint venture company, United Automotive Electronics Corporation, in order to obtain the ECU (engine electronic control unit) necessary for the engine. Bosch promised to make the technology in China in exchange for China's huge automotive electronics market.

When Zhonghua Group's Pangu engine was just starting, it purchased ECU products from United Electronics. Later, after making a breakthrough in its own technology, Zhonghua Group replaced it with its own products, while other independent brand engines still popularized the use of Bosch technology in the ECU of United Electronics Company.

With the United Automotive Electronics Company Zhuyu in front, the National Development and Reform Commission wants to replicate it in the automatic transmission market.

Among the three major automatic transmission suppliers, Aisin originally intended to negotiate with China's National Development and Reform Commission, but when it came to technology transfer, Aisin refused to cooperate with the company, citing the shareholders' disagreement. Anyone with a discerning eye knows that Toyota is behind the scenes.

In fact, the most suitable is to cooperate with Zhonghua Group, whose CVT technology can also meet the needs of its own brand, and there is no need to ask foreigners.

However, this suggestion was initially rejected by the three major state-owned automakers, who were reluctant to adopt it on the grounds that the CVT technology was not mature enough, and at the same time hoped to bring in partners who could help their own companies. To put it bluntly, I just don't want to make a wedding dress for Zhonghua Group, and there are many domestic car companies, and the NDRC can't settle such opposition.

In the end, BorgWarner from the United States won the favor of the National Development and Reform Commission, and they were willing to accept the Chinese government's offer to bring its DCT, or dual-clutch automatic transmission technology, to China. However, in terms of providing technology, BorgWarner has used an alternative approach, which is that they provide DCT key modules, which can be modified by each OEM according to the characteristics and needs of their own models.

In other words, BorgWarner provides the internal core, and then the Chinese domestic brand car companies carry out external processing to form "self-developed" products.

This cooperation method was also unanimously agreed by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) when it privately solicited domestic independent brands, and compared with the Chunghwa Group CVT and Aisin 6AT, BorgWarner provided DCT modules that could be assembled, which was more in line with their "independent research and development" needs.

Negotiations with BorgWarner continue, and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is really heartbroken about the popularization of automatic transmissions for Chinese automobiles. Now that Zhonghua Group has suddenly come out to acquire DSI, it will also get 6AT in its hands, which made the NDRC officials a little unexpected, so they decided to reply after a detailed discussion.

Based on his familiarity with the efficiency of the Chinese government, Han Hao of course took a two-pronged approach, negotiating the acquisition with DSI on the one hand, and waiting for the road in front of the National Development and Reform Commission on the other.