China’s Evergrande Health Industry Group entered an agreement to buy a 58.07% stake in car battery maker Shanghai CENAT New Energy at RMB 1.06 billion (US$156 million) according to a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Thursday.
This battery maker is among the first batch of companies in China that satisfy the country’s ‘‘standard conditions for the automobile power battery industry’”, according to the filing.
China’s leading property developer Evergrande Group, which holds a 77.5% stake in Evergrande Health is speeding up its ambition to enter the electric vehicle sector by completing its EV production capabilities through acquisitions.
The battery maker acquisition came only one week after Evergrade Health bought a 51 percent stake of Swedish electric carmaker NEVS at US$930 million.
This is all after Evergrande Health emerged from a public tussle with cash-strapped US-based EV maker Faraday Future, founded by the notorious Chinese entrepreneur Jia Yueting whose stakes in his own firm have been frozen.
Evergrande Health once invested in Faraday Future, attempting to save it, then terminated all investment agreements before finally reaching a settlement in late December last year which let Evergrande Health take a 32% preferred stake in Faraday Future and 100 percent stake in FF Hong Kong and a plant with land and equipment located in Nansha district, Guangzhou city.
Meanwhile, Tesla opened its first Shanghai plant earlier this month, pressuring its Chinese rivals to speed up efforts in EV mass production.
Editor: Nadine Freischlad