Chery's Qoros receives 3b yuan in loans from Chinese banks

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai July 25) - Chery's new joint venture company, Qoros, received a total of three billion yuan ($475.12m) in ten-year loans from five Chinese banks, auto.sohu.com.cn reported today. When asked about the interest rates, Qoros representatives responded that they are not excessively high.

Qoros signed an agreement with the consortium of banks, led by the Export-Import Bank of China, on Monday. The other four banks are the Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications, China Construction Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). The Export and Import Bank agreed to loan 1.2 billion yuan ($190.05m). The other banks each loaned 500 million yuan ($79.19m), with the exception of ICBC, which loaned 300 million yuan ($47.51m).

Qoros previously denied that it was seeking financial help from banks in the country. Upon receiving the funds, Qoros quickly commenced on its initial seven billion yuan ($1.12b) investment. According to the joint venture's official materials, a total of 15 billion to 17 billion yuan ($2.37b-$2.69b) will be used for first-phase investment. The JV has set a preliminary production capacity target of 150,000 vehicles.

Qoros, which was officially established in 2007 as Chery Quantum, is a joint venture company equally owned by Chery Automobile and Israel Corporation. Sales of the JV's first model are scheduled to begin next year.