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Hyundai Motor and Beijing BAIC Motor are injecting $825 million or more than 1 trillion won for their joint venture in China. The huge investment is being put in to further boost the companies' competitiveness in the electric vehicle business despite the declining sales.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Hyundai Motor and Beijing BAIC Motor will top up the capital stock of Beijing Hyundai Motor by around ₩1.2 trillion. Each of the firms is expected to contribute half of the planned investment to gather the full amount in their 50-50 JV deal.
It was reported that half of the investment fund should be completed by the end of June this year, and the remaining half to be brought in by the end of December. The main aim for the new funding is to improve the stability of the joint venture's financing capacity in addition to bolstering the competitiveness of their EV business, especially the manufacturing capability.
Beijing Hyundai Motor, which is the name of Hyundai and BAIC Motor's JV firm, has been struggling to keep up with the business. It has been experiencing sluggish sales in China and incurring losses that only continue to increase as of this time. With this, the two parties decided to put in fresh investments to support the company and make it better.
Based on the reports, Beijing Hyundai suffered from ₩1.2 trillion and ₩950 billion in losses in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Its car sales in the country are also falling after selling 1.14 million EV units in 2016, which was also considered as the company's peak.
It was learned that the EV firm was only able to sell 385,000 cars last year. Hyundai Motor, which has four plants in China, sold 1.35 units, and there is apparently a huge difference.
"The main purpose of the transaction is to strengthen the capital stability of Beijing Hyundai and to effectively respond to the need for further investment in the face of the electrification of China's automotive industry," The Korea Economic Daily quoted Beijing BAIC Motor as saying in its filing at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEX) last Friday, March 18.
