Recently, Shanghai Gree Automobile Technology Co., Ltd. was established with a registered capital of 20 million yuan, of which Zhuhai Gree Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Gree Electric Appliances, holds 51% of the shares.
Although this company is mainly engaged in research and experimental development, and is not involved in automobile manufacturing, after the news was exposed, many people speculated whether Dong Mingzhu was going to "build a car for the second time"?
Industry insiders know that Dong Mingzhu is obsessed with making cars, and in the field of automobiles, it can be said that he has made a lot of money.
As early as 2016, Dong Mingzhu wanted to acquire Zhuhai Yinlong for 13 billion yuan to attack the new energy vehicle sector, but the proposal was collectively opposed by other small and medium-sized shareholders of Gree.
Zhuhai Yinlong was established in 2009, focusing on lithium titanate battery technology in the new energy business. At that time, Dong Mingzhu was very optimistic about the company, and praised it as "gold buried in the sand".
Dong Mingzhu was very dissatisfied with the rejection of the acquisition proposal, and even scolded small and medium-sized shareholders at the shareholders' meeting for not knowing how to be grateful, threatening to "If I don't pay you dividends for 5 years, what can you do to me?" ”。
Dong Mingzhu also criticized Gree's shareholders for being blind, and said, "Yinlong's technology is the most advanced in the world, and new energy vehicles must be done."
At that time, Dong Mingzhu could be said to have "eaten the scales and had an iron heart" for Zhuhai Yinlong.
In December 2016, Dong Mingzhu found Wang Jianlin and Liu Qiangdong to jointly invest 3 billion yuan and buy 22.39% of the equity of Zhuhai Yinlong.
Dong Mingzhu has a personal investment of about 1 billion yuan and holds 7.46% of the shares. Subsequently, she also increased her shareholding in Yinlong twice, increasing her shareholding to 17.46%, becoming the second largest shareholder of Yinlong.
The money has been poured in, but the results have not yet come out, and trouble has followed.
In 2018, Yinlong revealed a scandal in which its company's founder, former chairman Wei Yincang and former executive Sun Guohua, were suspected of embezzling more than 1 billion yuan of the company's interests through illegal means.
Yinlong, which was regarded by Dong Mingzhu as "gold buried in the sand", became a big hole.
In 2021, Gree won 30.47% of Yinlong's equity with 1.828 billion yuan, turned Yinlong into a holding subsidiary, and changed its name to "Gree Titanium".
In December 2023, Gree Electric Appliances once again auctioned 24.54% of Gree Titanium's equity for a transaction consideration of 1.015 billion yuan.
The capital market was not optimistic about this operation, and at that time, the share price of Gree Electric Appliances went straight to the limit, and the market value evaporated more than 13 billion yuan on the same day.
In recent years, one of the most controversial investments in Gree Electric Appliances is the acquisition of Gree Titanium (formerly Zhuhai Yinlong).
Over the years, although Dong Mingzhu has been "cheering up" investors, Greti's unsatisfactory performance still makes the outside world suspicious.
In addition to air conditioners, today's Gree basically does not have much competitiveness in other categories. A Gree dealer even commented, "In addition to doing a good job of air conditioning, Gree can't do anything well." ”
In 2015, Dong Mingzhu threatened that Gree Mobile would kill Xiaomi within three years and become the world's No. 1. However, almost all of the models launched by Gree mobile phones have been sold coldly.
In fact, it is not easy to succeed in crossover. Xiaomi Auto took 3 years to create Xiaomi SU7, Lei Jun sighed more than once, "It's hard to build a car, it's hard to build a car." ”
A few more words
In recent years, Dong Mingzhu has engaged in Gree mobile phones and new energy vehicles. To date, these attempts have not been successful.
Dong Mingzhu was born in Nanjing in 1954 and has been in charge of Gree Electric for more than ten years, and Dong Mingzhu is 70 years old.
People are rare in the 70s, and that is the old society. But even though the average life expectancy is very long, 70 years old is still considered an advanced age, and it is really risky to start a business at an advanced age.