Evergrande's EV unit plunges, taking losses past US$84b

[BEIJING] China Evergrande Group's electric-car unit plunged in Hong Kong trading after it warned of a "serious shortage of funds", taking its losses in market value from an April peak past US$84 billion.

Shares of China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle (NEV) Group Ltd closed down 9.4 per cent, extending this year's decline to 93.3 per cent. At its peak in April, the company was valued at US$86.7 billion - higher than Ford Motor Co - despite not yet having a car on the market.

That is now looking like an increasingly unattainable prospect. In a statement late Friday, Evergrande NEV said it has suspended paying some of its operating expenses and some suppliers have stopped work. The statement confirmed an earlier report by Bloomberg News that the company had missed salary payments to some workers, and fallen behind on paying a number of suppliers for factory equipment.

The cash flow difficulties mean the car-maker that once had ambitions to take on Elon Musk's Tesla Inc in the electric-vehicles industry will now likely miss its target to start mass deliveries next year. The turmoil is symptomatic of the crisis gripping the parent company - the world's most-indebted developer - which has roiled global markets on concern it will default.

In a further sign of the EV unit's struggles, it said on Saturday it will not proceed with a planned issue of yuan-denominated shares on the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

At its peak, Evergrande NEV was one of the most valuable assets in Evergrande founder Hui Ka Yan's empire, and a potential source of funds to prop up the parent company. However, the firm said earlier this month that "no material progress" had been made to sell a stake in the EV unit, which is now trying to offload assets of its own.

Bloomberg Intelligence says Evergrande NEV's termination of its proposed Shanghai Star Board listing may hint that its property-developer parent is facing difficulties in selling its stake in the NEV unit. Kristy Hung Friday's statement said Evergrande NEV, officially created when Evergrande Health changed its name in July 2020, is negotiating to sell some of its aged-care projects and overseas assets in order to "supplement working capital."

However, it is uncertain whether any deal will be struck. Last month, Evergrande NEV reported a 4.8 billion yuan (US$742 million) loss for the six months to June 30 and revenue of 6.92 billion yuan, the vast majority of that - 6.89 billion yuan - from the health and aged-care business.

BLOOMBERG