Sadness Yin Mingshan丨The sail is swaying, and the dream of building a car is shattered

After the tragedy of Lifan, even Yin Mingshan, who has been in trouble for half his life, may not be able to recover.

Article丨Du Qiaomei

“Lifan is enchanting, and Old Yin is happy.”

In 2017, Lifan Industrial (Group) Co., Ltd. (Group) Co., Ltd., who was nearly eighty years old, When Yin Mingshan, the founder of Lifan (hereinafter referred to as: Lifan), the former motorcycle king, and the former richest man in Chongqing, retired, he had high hopes for Lifan.

However, only three years have passed, and Lifan, which has experienced fines for cheating and subsidy fraud, declining sales, and a broken capital chain, has become debt-ridden and in trouble. Yin Mingshan's "dream of freedom" has long been shattered.

On the evening of October 13, Lifan issued an announcement stating that the China Securities Regulatory Commission (hereinafter referred to as the Securities Regulatory Commission) had issued a "Notice of Investigation" because Lifan Holdings, Yin Mingshan and his family member Chen Qiaofeng , Yin Xidi, and Yin Suowei were suspected of violating laws and regulations in information disclosure, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission decided to open an investigation against them.

At the same time, the announcement showed that the company was ruled by the court to accept reorganization and there was a risk of being declared bankrupt due to failure of reorganization. If the company is declared bankrupt, it will be placed in bankruptcy liquidation.

“Listed companies violate information disclosure regulations, so regulatory authorities impose administrative penalties on them. Of course, in addition to fines on the company, the person directly responsible will generally be punished to varying degrees. If the case is serious, the actual control People will face criminal liability.” On October 19, a person in the securities industry said in an interview with Think Tank Jun, “In addition, investors whose rights and interests have been damaged can also file a civil compensation lawsuit with a court with jurisdiction. How the incident develops next depends on the outcome of the China Securities Regulatory Commission’s investigation.”

At this time, Zeng had been reformed through labor for 18 years, started selling motorcycles at the age of 54, and finally led Lifan to become an A-share private company at the age of 72. Yin Mingshan, who holds the first share in automobile stocks and established the tens-billion Lifan empire, is 82 years old.

As for Lifan’s tragedy, even Yin Mingshan, who has been ups and downs for half his life, may not be able to recover.

The multi-faceted life of the legendary richest man

"China's first private passenger car company to list A shares", "China's first private entrepreneur to enter the senior level of the CPPCC" , "China's Top 500 Enterprises", "Chongqing Football Business Card"...

Lifan, which grew up almost at the same time as Chongqing's modern manufacturing industry, is almost a household name in Chongqing, and its founder Yin Mingshan is a legendary figure among Chinese private entrepreneurs. Book publishing, motorcycles, automobiles, real estate, finance, football... The Lifan empire founded by Yin Mingshan is extending its tentacles further and further. Behind the titles of "Chongqing's richest man" and "Motorcycle King", Yin Mingshan's multi-faceted life is embarrassing. .

“A smart cat will always keep a crouching posture, waiting for a gust of wind to blow the door open again, and then jump out. I am such a cat that is ready to move. I have not become a living fossil, It’s because I have been challenging the environment, destiny, and myself.”

As Yin Mingshan said, he has always been the “cat waiting to move.”

In 1979, 41-year-old Yin Mingshan officially ended his eighteen-year reform through labor. During this period, he not only became an excellent worker, but also taught himself English. It is precisely for this reason that after the transformation, Yin Mingshan was transferred to Chongqing Design Institute as an English teacher, and later joined Chongqing Publishing House.

In 1985, the spring breeze of reform and opening up had spread across the land of China. Yin Mingshan, who had become the vice president of Chongqing Publishing House, sensed business opportunities and resolutely "went overseas" to become a book publisher and successfully published " "The Dime Book Series for Middle School Students" made me the first pot of gold in my life.

In 1992, because the book industry was unable to carry bigger dreams, Yin Mingshan, already the largest private bookseller in Chongqing, decided to start over. At the end of the year, he entered into a partnership with Zong, one of the largest motorcycle manufacturers in China. Zuo Zongshen, the founder of Shen Group, jointly founded the Chongqing Hongda Vehicle Parts Research Institute, officially starting his motorcycle manufacturing career.

This year, Yin Mingshan is 54 years old.

In the 1990s, Chongqing was famous for motorcycles. Local brands Jialing and Jianshe were local giants, controlling most of the market for motorcycle engines. Large manufacturers are unwilling to sell engines to small retailers, so some small manufacturers have no choice but to pay high prices to buy engines of poor quality from other places and pass them off as good ones.

“We must create a motorcycle engine that is unique in China and the world.

"With a 40-square-meter workshop and 9 employees, Yin Mingshan, who saw business opportunities, led his employees to create two "China's firsts" at that time: the country's first 100 ml 4-stroke engine, and the country's first 100 ml Electric start engine.

With the expansion of scale, leading technologies in the motorcycle industry at that time, such as water cooling, multi-valve, electronic injection, dual fuel, secondary combustion, and large displacement, were also pioneered by Lifan. Come out.

In 2000, Lifan Motorcycles produced and sold 1.84 million engines and achieved sales revenue of 3.85 billion yuan, surpassing Jialing, Jianshe and other brands, becoming the number one company in terms of sales in the country.

< p>In this year, 62-year-old Yin Mingshan ranked on the 2000 Forbes 50 richest Chinese list.

It was also this year that Lifan extended its tentacles to the football industry. , bought the Huandao Club for 55.8 million yuan, entered the Chinese football world, and took up the banner of Chongqing football.

At the beginning of 2003, the 65-year-old Lifan Industrial (Group) Chairman Yin Mingshan officially announced. Elected as Vice Chairman of Chongqing CPPCC, this private entrepreneur with total assets of more than one billion yuan also became a deputy provincial (ministerial) official. At this time, Lifan had become the largest motorcycle manufacturer in China.

Nearly 20 years of entrepreneurial experience have also developed Yin Mingshan’s ability to find business opportunities in crises: before the motorcycle market shrank, Yin Mingshan set his sights on the automobile manufacturing industry, which was a bigger challenge.

Unlike the smooth start-up experience in the past, vehicle manufacturing, which requires higher core technologies and requires greater investment, also paved the way for Yin Mingshan's "turmoil" in his later years.

A bumpy road to vehicle manufacturing<. /p>

In fact, from motorcycles, cars, football, real estate to new energy vehicles, Lifan led by Yin Mingshan has been chasing industry trends. “Toyota is everywhere, Santana is everywhere, ask Lifan people, what do we want to do? Well? "The red slogan on the outer wall of the Lifan factory carries Yin Mingshan's dream of building a car.

In 2003, Yin Mingshan acquired 80% of the shares of Chongqing Special Purpose Vehicle Manufacturing Factory and "Hunda" The trademark was officially changed to "Lifan" and the construction of a car production base in Beibei began. In the same year as Yin Mingshan, Wang Chuanfu of BYD entered the automotive field.

However, the road to car manufacturing was destined to be. A difficult and narrow track requires huge capital investment in addition to core technology.

According to the "Automotive Industry Development Policy" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission in 2004, Lifan needs to achieve a cumulative revenue of more than 2 billion within three years. Investment requires its own independent research institution and R&D investment of more than 500 million. Under this policy, Lifan Automobile's "birth certificate" failed. It was not until December 2005 that Lifan Motors turned around and was listed as a sedan by the National Development and Reform Commission. Approval of the production catalog. In January 2006, Lifan's first model, the Lifan 520, was announced.

Before him, Li Shufu, who also started in the motorcycle industry, had taken the lead with a Geely car. /p>

According to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers that year, my country’s automobile sales exceeded 7.2 million units in 2006, a year-on-year increase of more than 25%, surpassing Japan for the first time and becoming the second largest automobile consumer after the United States. . Among them, the cumulative sales of self-owned brand passenger cars were 2.1467 million units. Among the top 10 best-selling car brands, the self-owned car brands Xiali and Geely QQ were on the list, but the sales volume of Lifan 520 was less than 10,000 units that year. /p>

With the explosion of China's passenger car market, Lifan also ushered in its highlight moment. In November 2010, Lifan Motors became the first private car company to be listed on the A-share market. In the same year, Chongqing Lifan Real Estate Co., Ltd. Co., Ltd. was formally established, and Yin Mingshan officially entered the real estate industry.

However, under the aura of "Chongqing's richest man", Lifan, which lacked core technology and focus, began to lag behind in the road of car manufacturing. "Lifan's development history. It is closely related to the pace of development of China's automobile industry. "On October 19, an insider in the automobile industry pointed out in an interview with reporters that long before Lifan was listed, the differentiation of China's private automobile companies had been very obvious, and Lifan's dilemma was that its stall was too big and it was on the edge. It is also closely related to the lack of R&D capabilities, lack of focus on product quality, lack of focus on car manufacturing, being too "speculative", and failure to form a sustainable development strategy.

"2,395 new energy vehicles are not eligible for subsidies and involve fraud. The central fiscal subsidy fund is 114 million yuan."

The “Lifan New Energy Vehicle Subsidy Fraud Scandal” that was exposed in 2016 almost became a turning point in Lifan’s destiny.

In the subsequent years of 2017, 2018, and 2019, Lifan's non-net profits were negative for three consecutive years. In 2019, excluding non-net profits, the company suffered a huge loss of nearly 4.4 billion yuan.

According to Lifan’s financial report for the first half of 2020, its operating income in the first half of the year was only 1.584 billion yuan, down 69.42% from the same period last year, and its net profit was -2.595 billion yuan, down 173.99% year-on-year. Total assets are approximately 16.96 billion yuan, net assets are only 106 million yuan, liabilities are as high as 16.77 billion yuan, and the asset-liability ratio is as high as 98.87%. ?

In addition, the Think Tank Bureau found that Lifan Industrial issued the "Announcement on Cumulative Design Litigation (Arbitration) Matters" on August 24. The announcement showed that the company is currently involved in 1,178 lawsuits (arbitration). , involving an amount of 5.037 billion yuan. Among them, as of June 18, 2020, the total amount of litigation (arbitration) matters involved in the company (including subsidiaries) in the past 12 months totaled RMB 2.906 billion.

However, compared with operating losses and debt burden, the loss of hematopoietic ability is Lifan's most fatal problem.

On September 17, Lifan released a sales report showing that in September this year, Lifan produced 19 traditional passenger cars and 67 new energy vehicles, with a total of 86 passenger cars produced that month; 1-9 Monthly passenger car production totaled 2,254 units. In September, Lifan sold 81 traditional passenger cars and 65 new energy vehicles, with a total sales volume of 146 passenger cars that month; from January to September this year, the cumulative sales volume of passenger cars was 1,990 units.

This also means that the actual operation of the company's passenger car business is currently facing stagnation, the passenger car business, especially the new energy vehicle business, has declined significantly, and the domestic market has basically been lost.

Where to go to save Lifan?

A Lifan is not only a business card of a city, but also an industrial chain with far-reaching linkages.

As early as October last year, the Chongqing government convened the local financial office and creditors from relevant banking institutions to form a debt committee, requiring all departments not to withdraw loans, not to suppress loans, and to continue to lend.

On September 14, Chongqing Liangjiang Equity Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd. and Geely Maijie Investment Co., Ltd. became "white knights" and intervened in Lifan's reorganization as investors interested in reorganization.

However, Lifan has not yet ushered in the dawn of reorganization. The news that Yin Mingshan and his family members have been investigated has once again hit the market's confidence.

Although Lifan pointed out in the announcement that this investigation is an investigation of the company’s controlling shareholders and actual controllers, it has nothing to do with the company’s daily management and business activities, and will not have an impact on the company’s normal operations. . However, after the news of the investigation was released, Lifan shares fell by the limit without any suspense the next day. "This is my granddaughter, Yin Anni." On April 27 this year, the white-haired Yin Mingshan entrusted Lifan Motors to Yin Anni, who was born in 1995. Yin Anni, the new vice chairman of Lifan Holdings, was also elected as a shareholder supervisor of Lifan's supervisory board at the shareholders' meeting that day.

In fact, in the context of internal and external difficulties, the motorcycle business is regarded as the "life-saving straw" for Lifan to turn around. Although the motorcycle business declined in the first three quarters of this year, it was the highlight of Lifan's performance report.

“Before Yin Anni arrived, Lifan chose to concentrate resources on developing the motorcycle industry.” A person familiar with Lifan told reporters.

Lifan also stated in its semi-annual report that it will adjust the company's business development focus and refocus on the motorcycle business on which it started. In the second half of the year, the company will continue to promote KP series products as the core and further expand the product line of KP series models.

“If you still want to survive in the automobile industry, then there is a high probability that you will be acquired by others, or become part of another automobile company, so that you can continue to exist.” Earlier this year, Auto analyst Zhong Shi said in an interview with Think Tank Jun, "Lifan has basically been eliminated in the automotive industry, but it is possible to turn around if it can make motorcycles well."

This article comes from Automobile The author of JiaCheJiaHao does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.