Chery challenges BYD

Author | Wang Xiaojuan

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

"In the future, Chery aims to produce 1 million vehicles in a quarter, or even reach 1 million vehicles in a month, to quickly enter the global Top 10 automotive companies."

With the global production of Chery's 15 millionth vehicle, Chery Group Chairman Yin Tongyue has shown even greater ambition to the outside world. Chery's goal has shifted from "seeing BYD's back" to catching up with and even surpassing BYD.

Behind the grand goal given to the outside world, Chery is actively pushing forward with the Chery Automobile IPO. It needs to demonstrate greater confidence in development to the outside world, showing that Chery still has strong competitiveness in the current automotive market turmoil. Only then can discerning investors take a closer look and give it a higher valuation.

Compared to car companies that have experienced "bloody IPOs" in the past two years, Chery is fortunate. With expectations of further policy stimulus, the capital market has gradually warmed up recently. However, Chery also needs to deliver a more outstanding performance to realize its dream of going public.

In its push for an IPO, Chery is clearly holding its breath, as it has been striving for the past 20 years but has yet to achieve its goal.

Chery's earliest IPO plan was in 2004, but it was shelved due to the complex equity relationship with SAIC Group. In 2009, Chery sold a 20% stake for 2.9 billion yuan, which was seen as preparation for an IPO, but then there was no further news.

Subsequently, Chery has considered backdoor listings and independent listings, but these plans have been shelved due to various factors.

Now, Chery's new round of efforts to go public is entering the final countdown. By the end of 2022, Chery Holding Group Chairman Yin Tongyue set the goal of completing the IPO plan by 2025.

At the end of last year, rumors circulated that Chery was seeking a listing with a valuation of 150 billion yuan. However, more recently, it has been reported that Chery Holding Group plans to spin off its automotive business Chery Automobile for a Hong Kong listing, with an estimated valuation of about 7.1 billion US dollars (approximately 50.2 billion yuan).

Regarding the IPO plan, sources close to Chery Group have stated that it has been under planning. However, the specific IPO valuation was not disclosed by the source.

An analysis by a foreign investment bank executive pointed out that when investors consider the listing of whole vehicle manufacturers, they will comprehensively assess factors such as the progress of traditional car companies in new energy transformation and their level of intelligence. If the indicators of a car company perform poorly, it is also difficult to give a higher valuation.

Yin Tongyue also recently admitted that Chery's new energy vehicle business is "actually the worst performing."

However, since proposing "Yao Guang 2025" in 2022, Chery has been accelerating its transformation. In the first three quarters of this year, Chery's new energy vehicle sales have reached 331,800 units, a year-on-year increase of 186.4%. Compared to companies like BYD that have made greater progress in the new energy transformation, Chery still needs to continue to exert efforts.

Regarding intelligence, Yin Tongyue also stated at a press conference on October 18 that next year, Chery's intelligence must also be at the forefront of the industry.

Chery officially announced its plan to invest over 100 billion in research and development in the next 5 years, cultivate over 25,000 R&D talents, establish 300 Yao Guang laboratories, and support interdisciplinary scientific and cross-border technological research In Chery's R&D team, there are nearly 3,000 elites, including over 400 high-level talents with master's and doctoral degrees.

At the Global Innovation Conference on October 18th, Chery also showcased its R&D achievements in new energy and intelligence, including the Mars architecture, Kunpeng power, Lion smart cabin, Da Zhuo smart driving, and Galaxy ecosystem modules.

Furthermore, Chery has many stories to tell in the capital market. Currently, with the rapid increase in orders for the Smart World R7 in cooperation with Huawei, if Chery successfully goes public, it will also benefit from being a Huawei concept stock. Looking at the stock performance of companies like Saicest and BAIC Blue Valley, it is evident the power of being a Huawei concept stock.

Compared to many peers who have just started their overseas strategies, going global is one of Chery's strengths. This is also a business direction favored by the capital market.

In the past twenty years, Chery has exported vehicles to over 80 countries and regions globally, including 46 countries and regions along the "Belt and Road" initiative. So far, Chery has accumulated over 14.9 million global users, with overseas users exceeding 4.1 million.

Chery continues to expand its overseas presence, not only selling differentiated models tailored to local markets but also establishing or acquiring factories overseas for localized production.

In October, Chery entered the Egyptian market; in April, Chery signed an agreement with Spanish car company Ebro-EV Motors to establish a joint venture in Barcelona, Spain, to produce new electric vehicles, with a total investment of approximately 400 million euros.

Currently, Chery has established six R&D centers, 10 factories, and over 1,500 overseas dealers and service outlets.

In terms of going global, Chery plans to gradually achieve global production to reduce the impact of policies such as tariffs on its overseas operations. This also means that Chery is moving towards the goal of becoming a global automotive company.

With Chery's IPO entering the final countdown, going global and intelligence will be crucial strategies for Chery to sprint towards its IPO.

If successfully listed, Chery will start at a new starting point and, together with China's current new energy vehicle companies, ride the wave of new energy to reach larger overseas markets and explore opportunities globally