China's acquisition of the world's monologue

In the face of the upcoming Chinese auto companies’ acquisition of Saab, General Motors voted against it, so that the young Lotus Company and the huge group of the Swedish acquisition operation came to an abrupt end. Although it is not yet known what direction the Saab acquisition will take in the future, Chinese auto companies may once again lose ground on overseas acquisitions.

Since 2000, a very unique phenomenon has emerged in the world's auto market: Second and third-stream auto brands have continued to fall into difficulties, and Chinese autos have all reached out to “a helping hand”.

In October 2004, SAIC Motor’s US$500 million acquisition of 48.92% equity of South Korea Ssangyong; in November 2004, SAIC Motor’s 67 million pounds acquisition of intellectual property rights of some of Rover’s core assets; in July 2005, Nanjing Automobile Group acquired 50.78 million pounds. Fu Company; In December 2009, BAIC Motor’s $200 million acquisition of the relevant intellectual property rights of the Swedish Saab Automobile Company; in March 2010, Geely Holding acquired USD 100 million in 100% equity of Volvo.

During the period, there were many Chinese auto companies that planned to acquire or had already implemented acquisitions but had no success at all. Overseas acquisitions have become a must-have item in the rise of most Chinese auto companies, or they chose to do it but did not finish it; or they planned to do it but they could not do it. Or they have finished but are waiting for the right and wrong of the market to judge; or have done it but proved to be wrong.

The acquisition of Ssangyong by SAIC Motor was the biggest failure case for overseas acquisitions by Chinese auto companies. Not only was the initial purchase price of US$500 million criticized, but also the strong opposition of South Korea's Ssangyong Company’s labor unions caused SAIC to suffer.

The Rover acquisition is the most fierce infighting case encountered by Chinese auto companies in the overseas acquisition of the market. The dispute between the brothers of SAIC-Nanjing and the wall-for-street dispute has made British people unhappy.

The Hummer acquisition is the biggest burlesque in the auto industry in China, because American companies that are destined to have no market prospects are known to have been troubled by a Sichuan Tenggong company that has never worked in the passenger car manufacturing industry.

The Volvo acquisition is the largest overseas acquisition so far in the automotive industry. For now, success or failure is unpredictable (see the "Li Shufu Crisis").

In the nearly 10 years of acquisition of the world's automobiles, it is difficult to find companies outside China to step in. The acquisition of Land Rover Jaguar by the Indian Tata Group is the only exception.

This single-actor purchase by Chinese auto companies has nothing to do with the Chinese auto market becoming the world's number one, but it is related to the brand dilemma of Chinese auto companies.

After more than 30 years of reform and opening up, although the vertical comparison of Chinese local auto companies has undergone tremendous development, horizontal comparisons have left the gap with multinational corporations in the world again in the past two years.

No matter from the perspective of the Chinese government, or the auto companies themselves, or even the strong expectations of the Chinese society as a whole, it is even questioned that it is urgent for Chinese local auto companies to become bigger and stronger.

Hyundai Motor, the representative of Korean cars that started at almost the same time as Chinese cars, has become an important force that can't be ignored in the world's automobiles. However, China’s auto companies must now be fooled by the “joint venture” to enter the Fortune 500. Column.

The Korean cars that have been despised in the past have today been unattainable. China's huge market development space is more of an opportunity for foreign brands to improve. The market-for-technology strategy has been frustrated. Chinese domestic auto companies still face the dilemma of the inability of core technologies to break through, weak brand values, and low market competitiveness.

Overseas acquisitions naturally become another way out for Chinese auto companies to save themselves. Acquire advanced technology from overseas brands, establish its own brand, or acquire wholly-owned assets to reshape the face of China's world-class automotive conglomerates.

However, acquisition technology may be able to provide support for temporary self-owned brands, but the evolving market requires continuous improvement of technology. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether the acquisition of static technology can really hold up China's own brands.

Partially or wholly-owned purchases, the color of the Chinese brand capital integrated into the overseas brands, it seems easy, but if the lack of cultural fusion agent, "Geely is Geely, Volvo is Volvo" may become a real problem forever.

Whether the failure of SAIC's acquisition of Ssangyong will repeat itself in future Volvo will not be known, because the recovery of the world market and the growth of the Chinese market will still give Geely more time to integrate. However, the advent of the crisis is usually rain and snow. When the world and even the Chinese luxury car market appear repeatedly, it may be the true test of the success or failure of Geely's acquisition of Volvo.

From the history of the development of the world's automobile industry, no one auto company has grown stronger and stronger.

General Motors is a special case because it itself is based on several large-scale automobile manufacturing companies. However, after the Sloan era integration of GM's various brands, although GM has experienced worldwide acquisitions and reorganizations, it has finally picked up. General Motors is still a GM brand.

MINNI was reborn after the BMW acquisition. However, the basic spirit of BMW is still the luxury and strength of the BMW brand. Therefore, if you hope to promote the brand of Chinese domestic auto companies through acquisitions, then hope will eventually come to nothing. The acquisition can only help the local car companies to complete the phased goals. The real rise will inevitably need to rely on their own internal efforts to complete.