BYD’s executive confirms receipt of Hillhouse Capital’s investment

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Hillhouse Capital, an Asia-focused private equity firm, has spent $200 million on acquiring the stocks BYD recently issued to specified objects, a local media outlet reported earlier this month.

Photo credit: BYD

The report was afterwards confirmed by Li Yunfei, who leads BYD's Branding and PR Division, via his Sina Weibo account. “We really appreciate Hillhouse Capital's investment. We believe that the combination of cutting-edge capital and advanced manufacturing technologies will offer BYD better development prospect,” said Mr. Li.

Founded in 2005 by Zhang Lei, Hillhouse Capital is a long-term fundamental research-driven equity investor, investing in all equity stages in sectors including consumer, healthcare, financials and services. As for new energy vehicle (NEV) industrial chain, it focuses on sectors like new materials and battery by pump capital in the A share-listed companies like CATL, Tongwei Co.,Ltd., LONGi Group, and the HK-listed Xinyi Energy.

It is noteworthy that Hillhouse Capital had offloaded its entire stake in several New York-listed Chinese EV startups like NIO, Xpeng Motors and Li Auto by the fourth quarter of 2020.

BYD Company Limited announced on Feb. 2 its board of directors agreed to contribute $85 million or RMB with equivalent value to its wholly-owned subsidiary BYD Auto Industry Company Limited, and 3 billion yuan ($464.627 million) to its majority-owned subsidiary BYD Auto Company Limited.

BYD Tang DM; photo credit: BYD

The Chinese automaker said its new vehicle sales reached 42,401 units in January 2021, shooting up 68.44% year on year, while falling 24.72% month on month.

The automaker announced in early Feb. it divided its automobile business into four business groups, which focus on the sales businesses of the Dynasty and the e series, the branding & public relations, and after-sales services.

BYD said the revamp would help the company improve its brand construction, production planning and marketing business, and offer users better experience.