The deal values Newcool at RMB 115 billion, the same as when Avatr bought a 10 percent stake earlier this month.
Seres Automobile plans to buy a 10 percent stake in Newcool, becoming the second automaker after Avatr Technology to take a stake in Huawei’s automotive business unit.
Shanghai-listed Seres Group, the parent company of Seres, said in a stock exchange announcement today that Seres plans to buy a 10 percent stake in Newcool for RMB 11.5 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in cash.
The deal values Newcool at RMB 115 billion, the same as when Avatr bought a 10 percent stake earlier this month.
Newcool is engaged in the smart car solutions businesses, providing customers with products and solutions including smart driving, smart cockpit, car control, cloud computing, according to Seres’ announcement.
Newcool will take over Huawei’s original smart car solutions core businesses, according to the announcement.
Separately, according to the two companies’ announcements on social media platforms today, Huawei and Seres reached the investment deal on August 23.
Newcool aggregates many of the core technologies of Huawei’s smart car business, which Huawei will support in all aspects to serve the intelligent transformation of the automotive industry, said Richard Yu, Huawei’s managing director and chairman of the intelligent vehicle solutions business unit.
The investment marks a closer collaboration between Huawei and Seres, and Huawei and Newcool will continue to support Seres’ Aito brand to launch more new products in the future, Yu said.
Huawei is in the process of spinning off its automotive business into a standalone company, Newcool, in a bid to become one of the leading suppliers of intelligent systems as well as components.
Avatr, an electric vehicle brand backed by Changan Automobile, CATL, and Huawei, signed a deal with Huawei on August 20 to buy a 10 percent stake in Newcool, making it the first outside investor.
Newcool was previously 100 percent owned by Huawei, and following the deal with Avatr and Seres, Huawei’s stake will be 80 percent.
Newcool’s business scope will cover full-stack solutions for smart cars, and it is expected to grow into the largest domestic smart-car solution provider, Wang De’an, an automotive industry analyst at Ping An Securities, said in an August 20 research note.
($1 = RMB 7.1250)
Avatr to acquire 10% stake in Huawei’s parts unit Newcool for $1.6 billion
