On December 20th, according to documents from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, JPMorgan Chase increased its long position in Xiaopeng Motors' Hong Kong shares from 5.20% to 8.17% on December 15th. Previously, on March 10, 2023, JPMorgan Chase purchased 13.5216 million shares of Xiaopeng Motors Hong Kong stock at an average price of HKD 32.25 per share, involving approximately HKD 436 million in funds.
JPMorgan Chase has released a research report stating that advanced autonomous driving in China will be commercialized, and models without semi-automatic driving capabilities may be difficult to sell in the future. The institution predicts that 2024 will be an important turning point in the development of China's semi-automatic driving market (L3/L4 level), and is optimistic about Xiaopeng Motors' advantages in the field of autonomous driving business.
On one hand, there is an increase in holdings by JPMorgan Chase, while on the other hand, there is a decrease in holdings by Alibaba. On December 16th, according to documents from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Taobao China Holdings Limited, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, plans to sell 25 million US shares of Xiaopeng Motors, with a total value of approximately $391 million.
The relevant person in charge of Alibaba stated, "Based on our own capital management goals, we have sold some of our shares in Xiaopeng Motors, reducing our shareholding from 10.2% to 7.5%. Xiaopeng Motors is one of the leaders in China's electric vehicle industry, and we have established a strategic partnership with them. We believe in the prospects of Xiaopeng Motors and look forward to continued cooperation with the company.".
"Alibaba has been strategically investing in Xiaopeng Motors since Series A in 2017. Alibaba's reduction in holdings is a strategy to implement its investment realization return shareholders' communication in the third quarter financial report of the 2023 fiscal year, rather than due to a change in its view of Xiaopeng Motors. Since then, Alibaba remains the second largest shareholder of Xiaopeng Motors, holding approximately 8% of the shares, and will continue to cooperate with Xiaopeng Motors in areas such as cloud computing." Xiaopeng Motors has responded to this reduction in holdings.
According to the Hong Kong IPO prospectus of Xiaopeng Motors, He Xiaopeng, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaopeng Motors, and his affiliated companies are the controlling shareholders of Xiaopeng Motors, holding 21.75% of the shares, while Taobao China holds 11.9% of the shares, making it the second largest shareholder of Xiaopeng Motors.
On December 6th, Xiaopeng Motors announced that it had successfully issued 94.0793 million Class A common shares to Volkswagen Finance Luxembourg S.A., a subsidiary of Volkswagen, accounting for approximately 4.99% of Xiaopeng Motors' total issued and publicly traded share capital after the transaction. Volkswagen is currently Xiaopeng Motors' third largest shareholder.
In terms of performance, financial report data shows that in the third quarter of this year, Xiaopeng Automobile achieved a revenue of 8.53 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25% and a month on month increase of 68.5%; The gross profit margin is -2.7%, a decrease of 16.2 percentage points from the same period last year. In addition, Xiaopeng Motors has yet to turn losses into profits, with a net loss of 3.89 billion yuan in the third quarter, an increase of 63.6% year-on-year.
During a recent interview live broadcast, He Xiaopeng publicly stated that Ideal Automobile, which has already achieved profitability, is at the forefront of the industry, giving a group of new car making forces a glimpse of the dawn. However, (Ideal Automobile) has not yet fully emerged from the competition.
Public data shows that as of the end of November, Xiaopeng Motors has accumulated sales of approximately 121500 vehicles this year. Although this data has exceeded the full year of last year, it only achieved 60% of its annual sales target of 200000 vehicles.
Currently, Xiaopeng Motors is still accelerating the release of production capacity. During the above interview live broadcast event, He Xiaopeng said, "We can now offline 40 vehicles in an hour, with monthly sales stable at around 20000 vehicles. In the next three years, we will plan a factory with a monthly sales capacity of 50000 or even 100000 vehicles. Xiaopeng is not far from the goal of producing 1 million vehicles annually. However, compared to the numbers, we pay more attention to the brand revenue, profits, and the real situation of globalization reflected behind it.".
In He Xiaopeng's view, the competition in the automotive market will be very fierce in the next three years. "The sales of 1 million vehicles no longer indicate any problem. The core of future competition is who can achieve 10 million vehicles at the fastest speed, which represents having sufficient ownership in the (automotive) market." He Xiaopeng said.