JuneYao Group to Enter Automotive Field by Taking Control of Yudo Automobile
In April this year, National Business Daily reported that JuneYao Group, a top 500 company in China, has become the actual controlling shareholder of Yudo Automobile, which was confirmed on September 2.
On August 30, a Yudo spokesperson told media that, “The joining of JuneYao Group is the first step taken by Yudo Automobile in the financing process.”
According to sources familiar with the matter, before April 20, JuneYao Group signed an agreement with Yudo Automobile to become its actual controlling shareholder.
JuneYao Group is a modern service enterprise focusing on industrial investments. Founded in July 1991, it has formed five business segments: air transport, financial services, modern consumption, education services and scientific and technological innovation. In the list of the top 500 enterprises in China in 2021, it ranks 199th with an annual income of 31.93 billion yuan ($4.6 billion).
A person close to Yudo Automobile disclosed that JuneYao Group has set up a new automobile team after taking over the automaker. One of the main reasons JuneYao Group has taken on the role of becoming Yudo’s largest shareholder is to use the latter’s production qualifications and production bases for new energy vehicles.
“Whether it is Yudo’s brand influence or market positioning, it does not conform to JuneYao Group’s positioning.” According to people familiar with the matter, in the future, JuneYao will sell vehicles under its own automobile brand, and Yudo will produce them.
As one of the earliest new energy vehicle makers in the country, Yudo has completed the process of R&D, delivery and after-sales before the products of NIO, XPeng and Li Auto were mass-produced. In 2018, Yudo achieved a sales volume of 9,300 new cars and a delivery rate of 100%, next only to NIO.
However, after that, Yudo began to stagnate as its sales volume fell. Its net profit was -138 million yuan in 2018 and -177 million yuan in 2019. By 2021, losses reached 213 million yuan. As of March 31 this year, its total liabilities sat at 1.682 billion yuan.
Due to financial problems and suspensions of production, many of Yudo’s employees have the company over the last two years. In 2021, Yudo executives explained the slowdown, saying: “The company’s suspension of production is mainly affected by battery supply. Now we have drawn up a new battery procurement plan. It is expected to resume production around the end of June 2022.”
Thanks to the capital injection from JuneYao Group, Yudo has resumed work and production in July. On July 26, π1 Lite, the first model to be completed after the company resumed production, officially rolled offline. By the end of August, the number of employees of Yudo has expanded again to nearly 1,000.
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According to the plan, this year, Yudo will only produce one model – the π1 LITE. It will have two newer models in 2023, with a price tag of about 100,000 yuan. In the future, the price of Yudo’s vehicles will gradually rise to about 150,000 yuan.
