Evergrande invests in Faraday Future by indirectly acquiring stake in FF JV

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Evergrande Health Industry Group Limited announced on June 25 that the company has acquired 100% stake in the Hongkong-based Season Smart Limited (hereinafter referred to as Season Smart) with an investment of HK$6.746 billion. At the same time, the subsidiary of Evergrande Group has indirectly obtained 45% stake in Smart King Ltd, a joint venture (JV) between Season Smart and the EV startup Faraday Future (hereinafter referred to as FF), which signified that the real estate giant has formally become one of FF's investors.

According to the announcement, after the acquisition completes, Evergrande Group will name Xia Haijun, the group's president, as Smart King's chairman.

In addition, Evergrande Group will provide FF with a 3-year unsecured loan of HK$6.75 billion at an interest rate of 7.6%.

It can be learnt from the announcement that as early as November 30, 2017, Season Smart and FF's former shareholders, led by LeEco's founder Jia Yueting, set up a JV dubbed Smart King. Season Smart occupied 45% stake in the JV with an investment of $2 billion. FF's former shareholders obtained 33% stake in the form of technical assets and businesses. The rest 22% stake was reserved for the JV's management layer as equity incentive. According to the agreement then, Season Smart had paid $800 million first and the remaining $1.2 billion should be paid fifty-fifty before December 31, 2019 and December 31, 2020.