"Returning to China next week" Jia Yueting and his dream of going to the United States to build a car have been exposed to a big melon, how big is this melon? Xiao Lei believes that this melon may lead to Jia Yueting having no place to stay in FF. If we want to dissect the whole picture of the melon, we have to start with the accusations against FF by the short-selling agencies.
On October 7, 2021, the US short-selling agency J Capital Researc released a 28-page short-selling report, which raised a number of questions about FF's research and development investment, production capacity, capital operation and Jia Yueting itself, and believed that FF could not sell a single car.
The J Capital Researc report pointed out that from August to September 2021, it visited FF's Hanford plant in California, USA three times to investigate, but the plant showed no signs of production, and several factories claimed to be under construction by FF were not traced. In addition, FF's listing documents show that FF91 is still 1.4 billion US dollars away from mass production, but J Capital Researc said that there will be no more investment institutions to provide funds and loans to FF.
In the face of the allegations released by J Capital Researc on October 7, 2021, Jia Yueting, the founder of FF, responded the next day: "Cold rice hot stir-fry, nonsense".
In Xiao Lei's view, J Capital Researc, as a short-selling agency, its accusations against FF are by no means good faith, but are such accusations really as Jia Yueting said, just "nonsense"? Little Ray thinks not.
On July 22, 2021, FF was listed on the NASDAQ through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), when the issue price of FF was $13.78/ADS, and the opening price was $16.8/ADS, an increase of 22% compared with the issue price, and the total market value of FF reached $5.4 billion.
At that time, Jia Yueting excitedly said in an interview with reporters: "FF listing is a new starting point, solving the biggest financial problems, and then going all out to achieve 12 months of mass production and delivery." ”
However, the starting point for FF's share price is almost the highest point it currently has in the stock market. As of February 10, 2022, FF had fallen from $14.42 per share on the day of listing to $4.39, and its total market value had also fallen to $1.424 billion.
Xiao Lei believes that before the official mass production of FF91, FF's listing through SPAC itself is not very reliable, so its stock price plunge is also expected. You know, the traditional way to complete the listing needs to pass a strict qualification review, and relying on the shortcut of SPAC to complete the listing, itself shows that the company does not have the qualification to go public.
In fact, although there are not a few companies listed through SPAC in the past two years, most of these companies will return to their original value within a year or two. In Xiao Lei's view, the main reason why FF's stock price will shrink sharply in half a year is that its strength is not enough to convince investors.
In addition, it is reported that because FF may have violated US securities-related laws and regulations, there are already law firms soliciting class actions against FF from investors and calling on investors who have suffered losses due to trading the company's shares to join the lawsuit. Obviously, the unstable FF is now in a state of crisis that may collapse at any time.
The root of FF's illness is in Lao Jia
In response to outside concerns, FF has also set up a special investigation committee composed of independent directors to investigate the allegations. After a three-month investigation by the Special Commission of Inquiry, the Special Commission first self-justified, then came to two jaw-droppingly important conclusions and did a series of remedial work.
First, the FF Special Investigation Commission's 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shows that there is no evidence to support the previous J Capital Research's malicious short-selling report, which is seriously inaccurate.
In addition, the FF Special Committee investigation found that FF's 14,000-unit order claimed at the time of the merger of the listing business may be misleading. It is worth noting that the 14,000 booking orders announced by the Special Investigation Committee are only potentially misleading, not false information.
For this self-inspection report, FF official response said that the reservation form released by the company contains two types of paid reservation orders and free reservation orders, of which more than 14,000 FF91 bookings are free orders, while the global 300-year invitation system limited edition FF91 released by the company is a paid order.
In Xiao Lei's view, FF's so-called "free booking form" is a typical verbal order, as long as the consumer is willing, everyone can go to the FF official website to place an order without responsibility. Such an order can only represent the consumer's attitude of supporting FF91 at best, there is no money transaction, there is no order signing, and its 300 real order volume can not support FF's factory production operations.
Therefore, the so-called mass production in July is likely to be just a big pie drawn by FF for consumers and investors again, and even if FF can really achieve mass production in July, this order volume cannot support the development of FF. You know, the reason why so many investors have been optimistic about FF before is because although FF91 is positioned at the high end, its advanced design concept can still impress many consumers.
Today, the false prosperity brought about by the so-called "14,000 FF91 orders" has been exposed by FF itself, and the 14,000 orders and 300 orders are completely out of the same order. Xiao Lei believes that this wave of FF's operation is tantamount to lifting a stone and dropping it on his own feet, which not only hits not only investors' confidence in FF, but also seriously hurts the confidence of Jia Yueting's ashes fans in him.
In Xiao Lei's view, the order data fraud of FF91 is directly related to Jia Yueting. It should be known that as early as April 2021, the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau imposed a fine of 240 million yuan on LeTV, and also imposed a fine of 241 million yuan on Jia Yueting, the founder of LeTV.
It is worth mentioning that the reason why LeEco and Jia Yueting will be severely punished is precisely because Jia Yueting and its LeEco have been financially fraudulent for ten consecutive years from 2007 to 2016. Even if Xiao Lei does not understand finance, he knows how difficult it is for a listed company to want to commit financial fraud for several consecutive years, and how much financial fraud will affect the credibility of a listed company.
Jia Yueting has no way out in China because of credibility problems. In the United States, FF has also been exhausted by Jia Yueting and it is difficult to obtain financing. You know, the reason why FF has been financing badly before is mainly because investors are worried that FF will be firmly controlled by Jia Yueting, who is in bankruptcy.
The FF Special Commission's investigation report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shows that this is indeed the case. The survey report pointed out that for the business merger between FF and PSAC in July 2021, the information about Jia Yueting's role in the company published by some company employees to certain investors was inaccurate, and Jia Yueting was more involved in the management of the company after the merger than to some investors.
Although Jia Yueting stepped down as FF Global CEO as early as September 2019, the position of FF Global CEO has since been taken over by Bi Fukang. Bi Fukang has held important positions in BMW, Byton and other car companies, and has rich experience in the automotive field, while Jia Yueting turned to FF's CPUO, mainly responsible for the overall implementation of the Internet ecosystem strategy.
On the surface, Jia Yueting has already given up the top position of FF, and he and Bi Fukang perform their respective duties in their respective fields of expertise, but from the investigation results released by the special committee, Jia Yueting is the actual controller of FF, and FF has always been firmly in the hands of Jia Yueting.
In Xiao Lei's view, the reason why Jia Yueting wanted to conceal this important information during the business merger was because he knew that the reputation stain on his body might affect FF's listing plan. Judging from the results of the FF Special Committee, the first thing they have to do is to go to Jia Yueting.
The remedy for FF is to get rid of Old Jia
Although FF91 has repeatedly jumped tickets, FF can continue to gain the favor of capital, mainly because it has considerable technical advantages. So far, FF has invested more than $2 billion in research and development expenses, and has applied for or has been granted as many as 880 patents worldwide, and these advanced patented technologies are the capital on which it depends for survival.
In addition, in 2017, Evergrande conducted a performance test on FF91 for up to 1 month before signing a financing agreement with FF. Evergrande said that the maximum power of the FF91 has reached 783kw, and the acceleration time of 0-100km/h is only 2.39 seconds, which is quite dazzling even now.
In summary, Xiao Lei definitely does not believe that after burning so much money, FF is still just a shell company. It should be known that Gaohe Automobile has made certain achievements in China's high-end new energy vehicle market, and Gaohe's technology is essentially derived from FF91.
Although FF originated from Jia Yueting's dream of building a car, now the "untrustworthy person" Jia Yueting has become a burden on FF. Therefore, if FF wants to regain the favor of FF and FF91 wants to achieve mass production, then the first thing it has to do is to completely cut with Jia Yueting. To this end, FF has indeed taken a series of remedial measures in a targeted manner.
The FF Board of Directors has appointed Susan Swenson, Independent Director of the Board, as Executive Chairman of the Board and Jordan Vogel as Lead Independent Director. FF's CEO Bi Fukang and CPUO Jia Yueting will report directly to Susan Swenson, and their annual base salary will be cut by 25%.
In addition, in order to further reduce Jia Yueting's actual control over the company, the company may take sanctions against other employees, including Wang Jiawei, vice president of FF's global capital markets who originally belonged to Jia Yueting's faction, who was suspended.
In Xiao Lei's view, FF's remedy is equivalent to a "go to Jia Yueting" personnel shuffle. From now on, the car-building dream built by Jia Yueting will completely strip Jia Yueting himself in the form of a stain.
summary
Because of Jia Yueting's layout, we watched him personally build LeTV more than a decade ago, a tall building that once made people look up to the mountains. However, because of the credibility problem, Jia Yueting, who pursues dreams, has long since lost a foothold in China. When Jia Yueting flew to the United States, he may have thought in his heart: "China does not leave its grandfather, it has its own grandfather." However, a person can go bankrupt financially, but never credibility.
In Xiao Lei's view, Jia Yueting, who has gone bankrupt, is not only unable to stand in China, but also unable to stand in the United States. Judging from the decision-making of the FF board of directors, it will be difficult for him to find a place in his car-making dream in the future, which is probably the final outcome of Jia Yueting.
Note: The material for this article comes from the Internet