GAC NIO announces completion of capital increase worth 2.405 billion yuan

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- GAC NIO, a joint venture between Chinese automaker GAC Group and NIO with an EV brand "HYCAN", announced on Feb. 19 it has completed a capital increase by drawing a total of 2.405 billion yuan ($370.747 million).

Upon completion of the capital increase, Guangdong Pearl River Investment Management Group Co., Ltd. (Pearl River Investment) becomes the largest shareholder by investing roughly 1.923 billion yuan ($296.444 million) in GAC NIO. Besides, GAC Group contributed around 482 million yuan ($74.304 million) through its wholly-owned subsidiary GAC Aion New Energy Automobile Co.,Ltd. (GAC Aion).

HYCAN 007; photo credit: HYCAN

After the capital increase, GAC NIO will hit 3 billion yuan ($462.47 million) in market value. Meanwhile, the joint venture also had a significant executive reshuffle. Li Zhihong, president of Pearl River Investment, takes over the position of GAC NIO's chairman. Engaging in many important investment projects, she has abundant experience in management and investment. Wu Song acts as the joint venture’s co-chairman. This new role is in addition to being executive vice president of GAC Group and chairman of GAC Toyota. Yang Ying, who made great contribution to the popularity of the Trumpchi GS4 and GS8, was named CEO of GAC NIO.

Notably, Liao Bing, founder and former CEO of GAC NIO, has founded a new NEV (new energy vehicle) brand dubbed “Ziyou Motor” (meaning “freedom”), according to his personal Sina Weibo account.

GAC Group entered into a strategic partnership with Pearl River Investment and Guangdong Yuanzhi Technology Group Co.,Ltd. on Jan. 5 for an intelligent vehicle project, the automaker announced via its WeChat account.

Operated by GAC NIO, the project is expected to involve an investment of 3 billion yuan ($462.47 million) at the initial stage and will draw over 10 billion yuan ($1.542 billion) afterwards.

Under the agreement, GAC Group and Yuanzhi Technology will co-work on developing the next-generation intelligent vehicles in virtue of GAC Group's resources of complete vehicle R&D, supply chain and smart manufacturing, and the latter's innovation edges in AI, vehicle-infrastructure cooperative system, IoT (Internet of Things), intelligent driving, smart connectivity, intelligent manufacturing and big data.