GAC Group's cross-regional acquisition voice just dropped, and the integration of the automotive industry in Shandong Province has come as expected. Weichai Power, Shantui Stock, and the newly renamed Weichai Heavy Machinery Co., Ltd. issued an announcement on the 25th that they received a notice on May 22 and agreed in principle according to the minutes of the May 7th, 2009 Shandong Provincial People’s Government Office Meeting. For the implementation of Weichai Holding Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Weichai Holdings"), Shandong Construction Machinery Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shangong Group") and Shandong Automotive Industry Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shanqi Group"). Reorganized and formed Shandong Heavy Industry Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shandong Heavy Industry Group"). This move also marks the beginning of the integration of the automotive industry in Shandong Province. The newly born Shandong Heavy Industry Group will shoulder the heavy responsibility of building a 100 billion auto parts group in Shandong.
Integrated model or replica version of Shansteel Group
“We got this news from the controlling shareholders. After we got the meeting minutes, we announced the core contents of the minutes. In the minutes, we have no further information to disclose.â€, a company’s securities department personnel Told reporters. However, in the minutes of this meeting, no major issues such as the formation method, time of establishment, registration place, registered capital, and organization personnel of Shandong Heavy Industry Group were arranged. "It is only a matter of principle. Shandong Heavy Industry Group has not yet been established and its name is tentatively named," the company official said.
According to the minutes of the provincial office meeting, after the reorganization, a standardized parent-subsidiary company management system was established between Shandong Heavy Industries Group and its affiliated companies, and a standardized corporate governance structure was established in accordance with the requirements of the “Company Law†and the modern enterprise system. The reorganized Shandong Heavy Industry Group, whose corporate ownership status remains unchanged, will not change after the reorganization is implemented, and the actual controllers of Weichai Power and Shantui Shares will not change. Currently, Weichai Holdings holds 14.92% of the shares in Weichai Power, holds 30.59% shares in Weichai Heavy Machinery, and ShanGong Group holds 21.1% of shares in Shantui.
According to an industry analyst, “from the point of view of the presentation of the documents, the reorganization did not adopt the method of regrouping another group with a certain group. It may eventually adopt the Shandong Iron and Steel Group’s model. The property rights of the holding company, Shangong Group and Shandong Automotive Industry Group has been transferred to its name, forming a pattern of three major groups under the control of a holding company." However, according to informed sources, although it seems that it is a joint venture of three parallel companies, Weichai Holdings has outstanding strength among the three companies and will become the leader of this restructuring, and will enjoy greater power in the future Shandong Heavy Industry Group. Prior to this, Weichai Holdings had made “strive to reach 100 billion yuan in sales revenue in 2012 and enter the world’s top 500†as its development goal, and “adding†through mergers and acquisitions was an important means to achieve this goal.
In the minutes of the meeting, the principled expression of “the status of the legal person in the ownership enterprise is unchanged†was also interpreted by related parties as “The integration has not yet advanced to the level of the listed companyâ€. The three listed companies involved also said in a telephone interview with China Securities Journal reporters that "there is no material impact on us."
Shandong Heavy Industry Targets 100 Billion Billion Target
Previously, rumours concerning the reorganization of related companies in the heavy trucks, engines, passenger cars, construction machinery, auto parts and other areas in Shandong Province have been heard. However, they were eventually denied by the listed companies and the Shandong State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. However, the industry insiders told reporters at the time, "The integration of Shandong automobile industry is an established strategy. It is a matter of time, only to be ordered by the provincial government."
Analysis of the industry, the formation of Shandong Heavy Industry Group, an important background is the integration of Shandong automobile industry. As a major automobile province, Shandong has been suffering from a lack of large enterprise groups with output of more than one million, such as FAW and SAIC, and a major revenue of over RMB 100 billion. On March 4th this year, Shandong Province issued a draft of the “Shandong Provincial Automobile Industry Adjustment and Revitalization Planâ€, proposing to cultivate 8-10 large-scale enterprise groups with strong competitiveness, of which the operating income exceeded 100 billion yuan. The family, and for the first time in the official document, clearly stated that “the key support for Weichai Power, Shandong Automobile Group and Shandong Construction Machinery Group's joint reorganizationâ€.
This time, Weichai Holdings, in conjunction with ShanGong Group and Shandong Automobile Group, formed Shandong Heavy Industry Group, which is an important step for Shandong to build a one hundred billion production value automobile group. Based only on the sales revenue of three listed companies under the jurisdiction of Shandong Heavy Industry Group in 2008, the sum of Weichai Power, Weichai Heavy Machinery, and Shantui Stock has exceeded 40 billion yuan.
Another background of this reorganization is the acceleration of the merger and reorganization of several major industries such as construction machinery, auto parts and steel, and promotion of optimization and upgrading of the state-owned economy's layout structure. Similar to the reorganization of Shandong Iron and Steel Group that had been established before, the strength of the government played a leading role in this restructuring. According to informed sources, the scheme discussed at the provincial governor’s office was submitted by the Shandong State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. The three enterprise groups that participated in the reorganization were all state-owned enterprises.
According to the industry analysts, the formation of Shandong Heavy Industry Group achieved the idea of ​​building a large-scale auto parts industry group in Shandong Province and realized the integration of the industrial chain. Among them, Weichai Holdings, a large-scale enterprise group integrating production of engine assemblies and automobile parts, is in the middle of this chain, and its core product engine is the most. Shangong Group is a large-scale production base for domestic construction machinery. Its product range includes bulldozers, excavators, forklifts, and road rollers, among which the bulldozer products are riding in dust in China. The visibility of SAIC Motor Group is relatively small. According to statistics, the company has an annual production capacity of 60,000 light trucks and 1 billion yuan in auto parts.
But observers also said that there is still a long way to go from the principled expression of the document to the completion of this integration. Shandong Heavy Industry’s internal business is complex, its operating areas are scattered, and there is a big difference in corporate culture. The difficulty of integration is a great test for the new generation of Shandong Heavy Industry. Relevant persons also stated that Weichai Holdings had previously successfully acquired and absorbed the merger torch, and had extensive experience in corporate mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, and capital operations. These experiences may benefit the new Shandong Heavy Industry.