In order to advance the bankruptcy reorganization process of Hozon New Energy as soon as possible, the administrator plans to recruit potential investors.
On July 17, according to the official website of Alibaba Assets, Nezha Auto's parent company Hozon New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hozon New Energy") started pre-recruitment of potential investors for restructuring on the Alibaba Assets platform, and will accept pre-registration materials from strategic investors from July 10.
The announcement shows that the reorganization administrators are Zhejiang Haihao Law Firm, Zhejiang Zicheng Law Firm and Shanghai Junyue Law Firm, and the court accepting the case is the Jiaxing Intermediate People's Court of Zhejiang Province.
The administrator said that in order to advance the bankruptcy reorganization process of Hozon New Energy as soon as possible, effectively revitalize assets, maximize the value of the debtor's assets, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of all parties as much as possible, and reasonably allocate resources through market-oriented and rule-of-law methods, and fully identify and give play to the operational value of the company's assets, the administrator is now pre-recruiting potential investors in this case from the society.
Regarding the investment value of Nezha Auto, the manager believes that Hozon New Energy has the "dual qualifications" of new energy passenger vehicles and the "core technology" advantages with industry competitiveness; the "Nezha" brand has high market visibility, a rich product matrix and precise positioning; it has certain first-mover advantages in overseas markets; the suspension time is relatively short, and it has certain advantages in resuming production; and it has a good business environment.
The administrator stated in the announcement that Hozon New Energy had stopped production in November 2024, and it has been 8 months since then. Currently, the production line equipment is operating normally, and it still retains more than 400 employees, including the management team and core technical personnel, and has the conditions to continue production and operation.
According to the property status description and preliminary investigation results provided by Hozon New Energy, as of May 1, 2025, Hozon New Energy's assets include 350 acres of industrial land located in the Economic Development Zone of Tongxiang City, Zhejiang Province, production line integration equipment, production molds and tooling, transportation vehicles, experimental equipment and other fixed assets, as well as independently developed software products and "Nezha Automobile" registered trademarks and other intellectual property rights and accounts receivable.
Nezha Auto was once the sales champion among China's new car-making forces, and was also one of the earliest new car-making forces to develop overseas businesses.
Hozon New Energy officially launched the "Nezha" brand in 2018 and delivered its first model, Nezha N01. Since 2018, the cumulative sales have exceeded 460,000 units, and the annual sales in 2022 exceeded 150,000 units. However, since 2023, Nezha Auto's sales have gradually shown signs of fatigue.
On June 26 last year, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange website showed that Nezha Auto's parent company Hozon New Energy submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The prospectus shows that from 2021 to 2023, Nezha Auto's revenue will be 5.087 billion yuan, 13.05 billion yuan, and 13.555 billion yuan respectively; the net losses will be 4.84 billion yuan, 6.666 billion yuan, and 6.867 billion yuan respectively, with a total loss of more than 18.3 billion yuan in three years.
However, not long after, Nezha Auto was exposed to be in serious operational difficulties, and negative news such as large-scale layoffs, salary cuts, and arrears of payments to suppliers followed one after another.
Subsequently, Nezha Auto attempted to save itself many times.
At the end of last year, Nezha Auto announced that it had started a major strategic adjustment, including further improving operational efficiency by streamlining its structure and focusing on its core business. At the same time, Zhang Yong no longer served as CEO, and Nezha Auto founder and chairman Fang Yunzhou served as the company's CEO.
On March 19 this year, Nezha Auto held a supplier conference at its Shanghai headquarters and proposed a debt-for-equity swap plan. On March 25, Nezha Auto announced that it had reached a consensus with 134 core suppliers and jointly signed a debt-for-equity swap agreement of more than 2 billion yuan. 70% of the suppliers' claims will be converted into Hozon Auto equity, and the remaining 30% of the claims will be repaid in cash in installments as interest-free debt. But two months later, some media reported that the debt-for-equity swap plan had failed.
The latest list of overdue acceptors disclosed by the Shanghai Bill Exchange shows that in the first half of this year, Hozon New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd. was included in the list due to an overdue balance of 223 million yuan in bill acceptance.
