As soon as the meeting of the group's strategy committee ended, I asked Lin Jun to be responsible for immediately starting the preparation for the establishment of Yewang Intelligent Electric Vehicle Company.

The headquarters of the automobile company is temporarily located on the 11th floor of the headquarters building of Yewang Group located in the East Second Ring Road of Beijing, with me as the chairman and Lin Jun as the person in charge of the company's preparation.

The company was officially incorporated in BJ Zhongguancun on June 6, 2013, and I instructed the Group's human resources department to immediately make every effort to recruit senior executives of the core team of the automotive company.

The headhunting company invited by the human resources department approached Liu Hongjun, vice president of Huaxia Automobile Group, and recommended him to us as the general manager of Yewang Automobile Company.

Liu Hongjun is an old car man, after graduating from Jilin University with a major in engine design, he has been working in the automobile manufacturing industry for more than 20 years, from automobile design, to automobile production, procurement, and sales, and has done a good job, all the way up, from the design engineer of Huaqi Changchun Manufacturing Plant to the vice president of the group headquarters in charge of the design, production and supply chain of automotive products of Huaqi Group.

I was very satisfied with Liu Hongjun's background, and asked the headhunter to ask him to meet him at the headquarters of Yewang Group.

Fortunately, the Yewang Group was in full swing at that time and had a good reputation, otherwise it would be difficult for us to invite such a heavyweight senior executive of a central enterprise.

Mr. Liu is less than fifty years old, with a sturdy medium build, dark brown skin, a flat head, steady and serious, and the majesty of a state-owned enterprise leader.

When we met, I described to him my understanding and vision of smart electric vehicles, and I hope that Yewang's product is not only a car, a means of transportation, but also an Internet travel and entertainment platform, which is not only safe and energy-saving, but also connects travel, life and entertainment, and truly becomes a super mobile terminal.

Although Liu Hongjun has been working in state-owned enterprises, his thinking is not rigid.

He listened carefully to what I said and said, "Oh, when I came, I was still a little puzzled, why did Yewang Group have to make cars?" Now I understand that what Yewang wants to do is not only an electric car, but also a platform terminal. ”

"Yes, exactly! All of our business at Ambition Group is platform thinking. ”

"I understand that this is the direction of the future, and you can be regarded as a cross-border robbery of traditional automobile manufacturers!"

"Haha, yes, we have robbed the mobile phone and TV manufacturing industry, now it's the turn of the automotive industry!"

I'm glad he understood my vision, and his extensive background and experience in the automotive manufacturing industry was exactly what we needed to enter the industry.

Liu Hongjun and I had a very happy conversation and hit it off when we first met.

Liu Hongjun officially joined Yewang Automobile Company two months later as general manager.

Although it turned out that he was the vice president of a large state-owned enterprise and had a high status, he was a deputy after all. Now we have given him the No. 1 position in Yewang Automobile Company, and given him double the salary of the original state-owned enterprise, plus the management option of Yewang Enterprise Company.

Liu Hongjun took office with great enthusiasm.

Under his leadership, Yewang Automobile has developed rapidly, and at the end of 2014, it completed the conceptual design and demonstration of the first prototype car, "Yewang 007", and entered the engineering design stage.

He also contacted Tianjin Automobile Manufacturing Plant, a subsidiary of Huaqi Group, as the OEM production cooperation plant of Yewang Automobile in the future.

In the first half of 2015, Yewang Auto completed the first round of strategic financing, raising 2 billion yuan from 6 private equity funds at a valuation of 8 billion yuan, and selling a total of 20% of the equity.

At the end of 2014, the car company had more than 700 employees, and the original 11 floors of the headquarters were no longer enough, and they rented a floor in the next office building.

So at the beginning of 2015, the company rented a 30,000-square-meter office building in the TZ District Industrial Park between Beijing and Tianjin, as the headquarters of Yewang Automobile, which is very close to Daxing International Airport and convenient to Tianjin.

In the second half of 2015, "Yewang 007" entered the prototype trial production and testing stage.

I felt that Yewang Auto was basically on track, so I focused my work on the launch of the Kuang-Chi project, and I spent more time traveling to the United States.

Liu Hongjun still reports to me, and administratively supervises Zhang Qiang, the president of the group, after all, I am often not in China.

Since October 2015, I have been in California, and Liu Hongjun can only contact me via video call.

He usually contacts me two or three times a week to report on the progress of the car company and discuss some major business decision issues.

At the beginning of 2015, Yewang Automobile reached an agreement with Huaqi's Tianjin plant to cooperate in the construction of a new automobile assembly plant.

When completed, the new vehicle assembly plant will produce electric vehicles exclusively for Yewang Motors.

Huaqi Tianjin factory took out a 600 acres of factory land in Tianjin Binhai District, the funds for building the factory and purchasing equipment were provided by Yewang Automobile, the factory design construction area of 180,000 square meters, the design capacity of 200,000 vehicles per year, in addition to the land, the first phase of investment is initially estimated to be 6 billion.

The new plant will be built according to the world's most advanced standards, and after completion, the production personnel will be exported by the Huaqi Tianjin plant, and the management personnel will be jointly established by the two parties, and Yewang Group will hold 75% of the new plant.

This new assembly plant must be built before Yewang Motors can enter mass production.

The civil construction of the factory has started, and the construction of the plant will be basically completed before 2015, and it is planned to complete the equipment entry and installation and commissioning in 2016, and enter trial production.

Liu Hongjun now spends more than half of his time in Tianjin.

When he and I were on video calls, he was often at the construction site, wearing a hard hat and a dirty face.

At present, the civil works and the main steel structure of the new factory have been completed, and it has entered the stage of interior decoration.

In recent weeks, Mr. Liu has been on video calls with me as he runs out of money and he has become increasingly anxious.

"Mr. Zeng, now the cash balance on the account of the automobile company is less than 90 million, and it will not last for a few months at the current rate of spending,"

Liu Hongjun said to me in a video last week:

"In addition, the main workshop of the new factory in Tianjin will be basically completed before the Spring Festival, and we are now about to pay the second payment for the purchase of equipment. Otherwise, it will affect the plan for equipment delivery and installation next year. ”

"Haven't car companies already transferred 2 billion to new factories? Not enough to pay for a second equipment purchase? I asked.

"The civil engineering, roads, workshops, power distribution and other construction of the new factory are basically completed, including the payment of the workshop equipment purchase deposit, the first phase of 20 billion in place, has spent about 16 billion, the interior decoration of the office building and staff dormitory is about 100 million, and the remaining 300 million is not enough to pay the second purchase advance payment for the automated automobile production line."

Mr. Liu's voice was faintly anxious.

"How much money is missing?" I asked.

"The budget for the procurement, installation and commissioning of all production equipment is about 3.2 billion yuan. According to the contract, we have paid a total of about 500 million yuan in purchase deposits three months ago, and the second contract payment is about 900 million, and now there is still a shortage of at least 600 million. ”

"Oh, I see. In this way, you make a budget for the auto sector from now until the end of next year to me. Then I discussed with Mr. Zhang and Mr. Dong to see how to find a way to solve the financial problem for you. Don't worry, Mr. Liu, I will never let the problem of funds hold you back! You can move forward according to the plan we have agreed upon! "I cheered Mr. Liu up.

"Thank you Mr. Zeng for your support, as long as the funds can keep up, you can rest assured of my progress here!"

In the video, Mr. Liu stood in front of the capped installation workshop and pointed to the construction site of the new factory behind him.

I couldn't help but be moved, the sense of responsibility of the executives cultivated by our central enterprises can definitely rest assured!

Mr. Liu has almost to live and eat on the construction site in the past six months, ensuring that the construction of the new factory is advancing according to the planned schedule.

However, if the purchase payment of the main production equipment cannot be paid as scheduled, the installation and commissioning of the production line next year will inevitably be affected, and the morale of Mr. Liu and the automobile team will be greatly hit!

Thinking of this, I called Dong Jinping, the group's CFO, on WeChat.

"Hey, Mr. Zeng!" Mr. Dong connected the voice call.

"Mr. Dong, do you know the current financial situation of the automobile company?" I asked.

"Well, Mr. Liu talked to me before, and now I have to pay the second payment for equipment procurement, and there is a gap of 560 million."

"How are you going to solve it?" I asked.

"Mr. Zeng, I'm also worried about this matter!" Lao Dong suddenly complained:

"Originally, I was thinking of letting the listed company lend 7800000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 But now the cash flow situation of listed companies is also very bad, the budget of cultural companies to make movies and TV series this year has been exceeded, sports companies have spent more than 3 billion yuan to buy the live broadcast rights of European and American events, and Mr. Wei has even bought the live broadcast rights of the American Football League in Greater China, how many people in China watch it! ”

"Stinky boy! Don't feel distressed when the cub sells Yetian! I cursed in my heart.

Wei is always the CEO of Ambition Sports, an executive I personally poached from the National Basketball Association. Mr. Wei is decisive and courageous, and his execution is super strong, and he has made Ambition Sports the top three in the field of domestic sports paid content in two years, but his style is more arbitrary, and many executives of the group have complained about him.

But I still admire him and think he is similar to me, so I have always been more protective of him.

"How much money can listed companies borrow now?" I asked.

"Listed companies are now a little difficult to protect themselves, and the box office of several movies made by cultural companies this year is not good, and they must be at a loss; The content sales revenue of sports companies is only more than 700 million, and the sales profits cannot support themselves. Only the income of the Internet video business is relatively stable, and now it supports the listed companies. ”

Because we pre-installed the software of Ambition Video into every TV and mobile phone we sell, as the sales of TVs and mobile phones rise, our video membership also increases, and the growth of membership fee income has been very stable.

Mr. Dong said: "Now the cash flow of listed companies is already very tight, and I really can't draw excess funds!"

"What about the group company? Can you transfer some funds out? ”

In fact, I know that the funds of the group company are more tight, the mobile phone company has not yet made a profit, and the TV company has set the price of the product very low in order to seize the market share, and the old brands in the TV industry have been forced into a corner, complaining to us, saying that we have broken the rules of the game in the industry, so that everyone has no money to make.

"Mr. Zeng, you also know that the sales volume of mobile phone companies has not yet risen, and it has been losing money for the past two years, and it has to subsidize 8,900 million yuan every year. The gross profit of TV smart hardware companies is too low, and there is almost no profit. The financial company has just started and is still in the investment stage, and the car rental company invested by the group is still in the cash-burning stage. Now that the profits of listed companies have declined, they can't lend funds to the group, how to spend this year, I'm still worrying! ”

Every time before the Spring Festival, the suppliers of various companies will come to collect and settle the payment, which is the time when the group's financial management department is under the greatest pressure.

"Well, what's the progress on the financing side? Can Mr. Peng give us some more money? ”

I thought of the Jinghai Fund.

"In the second half of the year, the sports company raised 600 million, and the financing of the automobile company and the mobile phone company has not progressed. The competition between these two industries is fierce, and everyone is waiting to see who will come out on top. Mr. Peng also said to take a look. “

Mr. Dong hesitated for a moment, and then said: "The investment community now feels that the stalls of ambition are too big, and they have to do everything, and they may not be able to do it well. ”

"Hey, the bird's ambition!"

I thought to myself, "Otherwise, everyone will be Jack Ma!" ”

After thinking for a while, I said to Mr. Dong:

"Mr. Dong, I know you're under a lot of pressure. But you also understand that the car company will not be able to pay for the second equipment purchase according to the contract this time, and the construction progress of the new plant next year will be greatly affected. Therefore, please be sure to take financing as the first priority, and strive to bring in 10 to 2 billion by the end of the year, no matter what method is used. I'll also look for resource relationships. ”

"I, I'll do my best, Mr. Zeng."

Dong Zong's voice didn't sound very confident.