Jia Yueting's resignation as the main person in charge of LeTV and LeTV has not alleviated the worries about the future of LeTV. On the one hand, when interviewed by the media recently, Sun Hongbin, the "taker", publicly expressed his "dissatisfaction" with Jia Yueting; On the other hand, Jia Yueting is still raising funds for LeTV's debt problem in the United States, and the return date is unknown. The most worrying thing is the "creditors" of LeTV, such as suppliers and banks. Once they choose to solve the problem through legal procedures, the subsequent chain reaction may really push Jia Yueting and LeTV to the "dead end".
Sun Hongbin's "discontent"
Since he became the "receiver" of LeTV, Sun Hongbin has always had a good evaluation of Jia Yueting in various public occasions. However, a series of troubles that LeTV has encountered recently are making Sun Hongbin lose patience with Jia Yueting. After the short 15-minute second extraordinary shareholders' meeting of LeTV in 217, Sun Hongbin was blunt when interviewed by the media-as long as Jia Yueting quit, many people would like to take over LeTV. From the outside world, this reveals a clear signal: Sun Hongbin has lost patience with Jia Yueting.
When talking about the reasons why Jia Yueting resigned as the chairman of LeTV and applied to reorganize the board of directors of LeTV, Sun Hongbin expressed it more directly. He said that this is a very necessary procedure, and if Jia Yueting does not resign, he will be fired. Just a few days ago, Sun Hongbin also publicly stated in his WeChat circle of friends. We should support Lao Jia's entrepreneurial spirit.
When taking over LeTV, Sun Hongbin made it clear that he was optimistic about LeTV, LeTV super tv and LeTV's film and television business, but he was not interested in other businesses. He also publicly suggested to Jia Yueting that part of LeTV's business should be sold and the financing should be raised. However, even though various business lines of LeTV have been in constant trouble recently, Jia Yueting has no intention of shrinking his business-and the difference between them is likely to be the fuse that led Jia Yueting to resign as the main person in charge of LeTV and LeTV.
On the evening of July 6th, LeTV announced that Jia Yueting would resign as the chairman of LeTV, and at the same time, he would resign as a member of the Nomination Committee, Audit Committee, Chairman of the Strategy Committee and Remuneration and Appraisal Committee of the Board of Directors, and quit the board of directors. After resigning, he would no longer hold any post in LeTV. In May this year, LeTV announced that Jia Yueting resigned as the general manager of the company and became the full-time chairman of the company. A few days ago, Jia Yueting also confirmed that the legal representative of LeTV Holdings has changed, and he no longer serves as the legal representative, and Wu Meng took over.
regarding Jia Yueting's sudden resignation, letv supercar wechat WeChat official account announced that Jia Yueting will officially assume the post of global chairman of letv auto ecology, and will be fully responsible for auto financing, global management team building, corporate governance, product development and testing, production guarantee and other aspects, and lead letv auto ecology to continue to realize the dream of transforming the auto industry for a century according to the established strategy.
On the morning of July 16th, Jia Yueting issued an open letter saying: "I will take full responsibility for the great challenges that LeTV has faced today, and I will do my duty to the employees, users, customers and investors of LeTV." He said that he is still the executive director and the largest shareholder of LeTV Holdings, and resigned from the CEO of listed companies and even more important positions in order to go all out to achieve the fastest mass production listing of FF91. No matter how big a run, it can't crush the dream of changing the automobile industry. Finally, he urged everyone to give LeTV some time, give LeTV some time, and LeTV will pay back all the financial institutions, suppliers and any arrears.
Regarding the change of Jia Yueting's identity, some capital market practitioners told reporters that this may be a helpless move by LeTV and LeTV. "Due to the serious debt problem, Jia Yueting has been on the verge of' credit bankruptcy'. At present, LeTV is actively seeking financing for its various businesses. At this time, it may be the only choice for LeTV to cut off contact with Jia Yueting. As Jia Yueting fades out of LeTV in the future, it may be able to properly stabilize the relevant creditors and get LeTV out of trouble. "
Self-help financing is doubtful
At present, Jia Yueting is in the United States. According to his own statement, on the one hand, he is busy with the business of LeTV and promoting the mass production of FF91; On the other hand, it is to seek financing for various businesses of LeTV. But for such a statement, the outside world does not seem to recognize it. In Jia Yueting's Weibo message, many people directly questioned whether Jia Yueting went to the United States at this juncture to "run away". In response to such doubts, Jia Yueting announced through various channels that he would "return to China this week". But as of press time, it is still unknown whether Jia Yueting has returned to China.
although Jia Yueting has vowed to be responsible for letv and its suppliers, it is widely believed that it is basically impossible for Jia Yueting to achieve financing self-help. "Now LeTV is a big pit. In China, LeTV and Jia Yueting are shunned. I believe Americans are not so stupid!" A capital market person told the Economic Information Daily. This person believes that the debt dilemma that LeTV is currently facing may "push Jia Yueting to the wall".
The reporter has previously learned from many insiders that in addition to the debt problems currently exposed, suppliers and partners of LeTV's multiple businesses are checking the cooperation between LeTV, including sorting out the accounts receivable and asset mortgage involved in LeTV's business. It is reported that some LeTV suppliers and partners have stopped the cooperation involving advance payment or follow-up payment between LeTV. In addition, some insiders revealed that the upstream and downstream supply chains of LeTV's products, including foundries, logistics and distribution partners, e-commerce partners, service outsourcing partners, and even conference companies, are also quietly conducting business checks. One of the key tasks is to urge LeTV to collect accounts receivable.
In fact, due to the debt problem, the suppliers of various businesses of LeTV have "jumped out" to discuss with Jia Yueting. Since the beginning of this year, the list of suppliers who are openly "torn face" with Jia Yueting has been continuously lengthened: among them, A-share listed companies include Shanghai Weir, Haosheng Electronics and Mingjia United. In the list of these suppliers, the number of debtors who owe money to LeTV Mobile accounts for more than 8%. Among them, Mingjia jointly announced that LeTV and a number of LeTV companies owed more than 6 million yuan in advertising.
In this regard, the heads of several business lines of LeTV recently said in the related media communication WeChat group that the related business is progressing smoothly and will not be affected. However, market participants believe that LeTV may not be able to pay off its debts in the short term, which will trigger a further chain reaction.
Some market participants also said that even if Jia Yueting can raise money from the United States, it is estimated that it will not be able to fill the current "pit" of LeTV. There is no consensus on how serious the debt crisis of LeTV is. According to market analysis, in December last year, Sunac conducted a one-month due diligence on LeTV, counted the funding gap of LeTV except for LeTV, and finally invested 15 billion yuan. However, when the total debts of various businesses were counted at the end of March 217, Sunac found that it far exceeded this figure: the total debt owed by LeTV was about 34.3 billion yuan, which was still as high as nearly 26.3 billion yuan after deducting the deposit. According to the incomplete statistics of market institutions, the total amount owed by LeTV suppliers is about 895 million yuan.
Recently, some people who claimed to be the core people of LeTV told the outside world that it was not accurate to say that LeTV owed more than 2 billion yuan under the unified caliber. The person stressed that LeTV is divided into listed system, unlisted system and automobile business after all. In addition, there are different definitions of arrears, such as arrears of financial institutions, arrears of suppliers, convertible bonds of investors, etc. If the definition of arrears is not clear, there will be no basis for discussion of more than 2 billion arrears. However, the source revealed that the amount owed by LeTV to financial institutions is at best 1 billion yuan. He believes that with the existing scale of LeTV, the bank liabilities with a quota of more than 1 billion are a normal category, and have not yet been run by financial institutions.
some market analysts believe that letv's collateral value can cover the debts due, so there is no reason for banks to run. As for LeEco's application for asset freeze by China Merchants Bank, a person close to LeEco said that the first is that the collateral should be discounted; Second, there is a time limit for repayment, and there are audits within the bank, the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the National Audit Office; Third, it is possible that the loan of China Merchants Bank is about to expire, while other financial institutions have not yet expired.
another market analyst believes that Jia Yueting adopts domestic insurance and foreign loans-it buys Coolpad in Hong Kong, pledges RMB assets in China and borrows US dollars abroad. At present, the share price of this part of overseas assets is only 2%. "Jia Yueting may really have no money, but even if he has money, the money can't go out, and there is no way to repay the US dollar loan of China Merchants Bank, so his assets are frozen." The market analyst said.
selling land may be a lifesaver
Although the trouble is not small, Jia Yueting is not without a solution. Recently, many market participants have said that even if financing is blocked, Jia Yueting still holds a lifeline, that is, a large number of land assets in its hands.
during its massive expansion, letv, as a new internet company, was once regarded as a guest by local governments. During this period, Jia Yueting bought land and built an "eco-city" and so on, and took land crazily everywhere. The industry believes that Jia Yueting may eventually choose to sell these land assets if it wants to get rid of the debt crisis and continue its mobile phone and TV business.
in fact, letv's land assets far exceed the imagination of the outside world. According to public information, in 211, LeTV and Beijing Golden Fifth Ring Real Estate invested in the construction of China Network Audio-visual Industry Base in Tongzhou, Beijing. The project covers an area of 2,3 mu, with the first phase of the project covering 6 mu and the second phase covering 1,7 mu. In August, 215, ricas, then vice chairman of LeTV, introduced that LeTV would build a network audio-visual industrial base in China (Chongqing) in Liangjiang New District, Chongqing. Subsequently, in November 215, LeTV won nearly 4, square meters of commercial and residential land in Chongqing Longxing and other places at a price of 421 million yuan. In March 216, LeTV once again announced that it would invest 3 billion yuan to build a hotel and apartment complex project in jiangbei mouth, Chongqing, with a scale of about 16, square meters; In May 216, LeTV won the Shimao Gongsan project in Sanlitun business district of Beijing, costing 2.972 billion yuan. In the same month, LeTV acquired 1% equity of two commercial real estate development management companies under Shimao Co., Ltd. at a price of 3 billion yuan; In the second month of that year, in order to expand its R&D and operation business in North America, LeTV acquired Yahoo's 197, square meters of land in Santa Clara County, California, USA for 25 million US dollars (about 1.644 billion yuan at that time); In September 215, LeTV signed a cooperation agreement with Jixian County, Tianjin, saying that it would invest 4 billion yuan to build a LeTV super eco-city. However, some media reported that LeTV has not officially signed a contract with the local authorities; In December 216, LeTV Eco-car (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd. acquired 1,35 mu of land in Moganshan, Zhejiang at a price of 279 million yuan. In April this year, LeTV Motor acquired 679 mu of land at a price of 14 million yuan.
According to incomplete statistics, in recent years, LeTV has also signed strategic cooperation agreements with many local governments, such as Shenzhen, Linfen, Shanxi, Shanghai, etc., and LeTV has won a lot of land in various ways, such as industrial base, eco-city and eco-industrial park. The industry believes that this land reserve has now become one of the most valuable assets in Jia Yueting's hands.
it is reported that letv has started to make contact with relevant parties and is ready to sell assets including shimao gongsan. According to industry analysis, at present, LeTV's relatively high-quality assets that can be realized in a short period of time include all kinds of land reserves. Although it is helpless, it is a good way to tide over the difficulties. Many market analyses also believe that after Sunac invested in LeTV, Jia Yueting can make better use of its land assets by taking advantage of its relationship with Sunac, so as to solve the urgent need of LeTV.
let's see how letv can get out of the predicament!