Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that it is to invest NT$12.7 billion (US$430.39 million) in its Hua-chuang Automobile Information Technical Center (華創車電) research unit after it in May cut the unit’s share capital by 99.9 percent, or NT$3.28 billion.
It would be Yulon’s latest effort to overhaul the capital structure of Hua-chuang and a warmup for the creation of an electric vehicle venture with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) next quarter.
Hua-chuang is to invest NT$7.63 billion of assets in the venture, giving it a 49 percent stake, while Hon Hai would own 51 percent after investing NT$7.94 billion in cash, based on an agreement the companies signed in March.
Photo: Amy Yang, Taipei Times
The new company “is to be set up in the fourth quarter,” Yulon vice president Lee Chien-hui (李建輝) told an investors’ conference.
It is to develop new vehicles for Yulon’s Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車) unit initially, as well as for other customers on a contract basis in the long run, Yulon said.
Vehicles developed by the unit, are to be manufactured at Yulon’s factories, it said.
More details about the venture would be unveiled during the annual “Tech day” on Oct. 16 arranged by Hon Hai, Lee said.
Meanwhile, Yulon would postpone the opening of a commercial real-estate development project in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) by six months to the second quarter of 2022, due to the interior decorating schedule of its major tenant Eslite Spectrum Corp (誠品生活), Yulon spokesman Steven Lo (羅文邑) said.
Yulon had expected to complete the project in the fourth quarter of next year, Lo said.
Yulon expects new car sales in Taiwan to total 420,000 units this year, down 1.1 percent year-on-year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lee said, adding that it expects to sell 40,000 units this year.
Yulon swung into net profit of NT$765 million in the first half of this year, from a net loss of NT$937 million in the same period last year. That translated into earnings per share of NT$0.5, compared with losses per share of NT$0.93 a year earlier.
Revenue shrank 9 percent year-on-year to NT$37.37 billion from NT$41 billion, as car sales fell by 3,800 units.
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