Automotive industry: Same-door merger has a positive effect on integration

On November 10, 2009, AVIC and the Military Corps signed an agreement. AVIC will transfer the shares of Changhe Automotive, Hafei Motors, Dongan Power, Changhe Suzuki and Dongan Mitsubishi into the China Changan Automobile Group under the China Military Group. The 23% share of the China Changan Automobile Group under the China Military Equipment Group is allocated to AVIC.

The two groups reorganized and established the New China Changan Automobile Group Co., Ltd., with 77% of the shares of the Armed Forces and 23% of the shares of the CNAC.

After the integration, the new Chang'an Group has 9 major vehicle production bases in the country, 21 vehicle factories and 27 directly-owned enterprises, and an annual production capacity of 2.2 million vehicles (sets).

We are optimistic about the integration of the two parties. The views are as follows:

Integration with the door has a first-mover advantage. We have studied cases of mergers and acquisitions in the automotive industry worldwide. Most of them ended in failure. We have found that these cases have the same characteristics, that is, the integration of the two sides because of the difficulty to achieve the concentration and unification of power, resulting in lower than expected integration. The military uniforms and AVIC are military enterprises, and the Changan Group will take over the automotive business of Airline. Both parties have completely different backgrounds in terms of corporate culture, concentration of new management power, and asset complementarity, although it is still difficult to judge both sides. Whether the integration can produce positive results in the future, but it has already had the first-mover advantage;

Dongan Power has obvious complementary effects on Changan's own brand cars. In this merger plan, Chang'an Group will directly control Dongan Power, which is the largest independent engine supplier in the domestic passenger car industry, and nearly half of the engines of domestic self-owned brand cars. Changan Auto’s own-brand car is in a rising period, and the integration of the two parties can significantly improve the competitiveness of Chang’an sedan, which is highly complementary;

The integration of the minicar business will benefit from industry trends and channel resources. Due to the strong sales of mini-vehicles in 2009, Chang'an's production capacity has already reached full capacity. After the integration, Hafei and Changhe can contribute 300,000 vehicles. We are also optimistic about the sales situation of mini-vehicles in 2010. In addition, the competitiveness of the mini-vehicle industry reflects the trend of “channels are king”. With the homogeneity of products, the scale and channels become the key to competition among enterprises. Integration of Hafei and Changhe can greatly enrich Changan's micro-vehicle sales channels throughout the country, especially in the northeast.