File photo/Zhang Jian (NBD)

Jan. 16 (NBD) -- Evergrande Health Industry Group Limited ("Evergrande Health"), Hong Kong-based subsidiary of Chinese property behemoth Evergrande, announced Tuesday it has entered into an agreement to buy Mini Minor Limited, whose only asset is the 51 percent shareholding in National Energy Vehicle Sweden AB ("NEVS"). 

Headquartered in Sweden, NEVS is a global electric vehicle company focused on intelligent automobiles and is striving to become a global leader in sustainable and sharing-based smart mobility ecosystems. 

This indicates through the new purchase, Evergrande could continue its dream of building cars after parting ways with Faraday Future ("FF"). 

On the last day of last year, Evergrande Health settled its months-long dispute with FF. They entered into a restructuring agreement on Evergrande Health's investment in the cash-strapped electric car startup. According to the restructuring agreement, FF's founder Jia Yueting is entitled to a call option to purchase Evergrande Health's stake in FF within five years. This will undoubtedly jeopardize the Chinese property developer's car manufacturing plan. 

The total consideration for Evergrande Health's new transaction is 930 million U.S. dollars, and will be paid in two installments: the first installment of 430 million U.S. dollars had been paid on Tuesday, and the remaining amount will be paid on or before January 31.

It is worth noting that Evergrande will receive a majority of board seats in NEVS in addition to the 51 percent stake. 

What the real estate giant values is the Swedish company's advanced technologies for new-energy vehicle manufacturing, a person-in-charge with Evergrande said to NBD. 

In 2012, NEVS acquired core assets and intellectual property rights of Saab Automobile AB, a Swedish company with 75 years of history. The company now has a global research and development team consisting of over 500 personnel, and a diversified international management team with more than 1,800 employees. It owns production bases with mass production capabilities in Sweden's Trollhttan and China's Tianjin, and is planning to construct a manufacturing plant in Shanghai. 

More importantly, National New Energy Vehicle Co., Ltd., Tianjin-based subsidiary of NEVS, is one of the ten qualified new-energy automobile companies approved by China's National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. 

According to the above-mentioned source, NEVS has built the Phoenix platform catered for the research and development of fully electric cars and has developed two pure electric car models that are technically ready for volume production. 

With regard to details about the cooperation with NEVS, the person said Evergrande is willing to offer its production base in Nansha District, Guangzhou to the Swedish carmaker if the latter needs. The plot of land was secured in April 2018 through FF's affiliate called Ruichi Intelligent Automobile Co. Ltd. for the purpose of electric car production. 

Moreover, the property developer can help NEVS expand presence in the Chinese automotive market based on its partnership with Xinjiang Guanghui Industry Investment Group Co., Ltd., which has energy and vehicle sales businesses as well as logistics and real estate businesses, the person added.

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn