Chinese Partner of BMW Faces Financial Crisis

The newest headline today tells us that the Chinese partner of BMW is facing a financial crisis. This was already a rumor spreading last August. But it became a real case last week as a new report from Huachen Automotive Group was released. The group was the parent company of Brilliance Auto, BMW’s partner. Its announcement highlights the move of its creditors to apply a reorganization of the company to a Chinese court.

The government of the Liaoning province owns Huachen Automotive Group. And today, it is facing numerous problems after the pandemic. One of these includes its failure to pay a 1-billion-yuan, or $152 million, bond last October. Despite this, the company tries to reorganize its business model so as to stay on track. However, this news still remains alarming for the BMW Group.

The primary reason for this is that the Chinese market carries out distinct rules that allow Western companies to be in business locally. For this reason, BMW needs to join forces with local businesses according to the law. And this has been the case for them and Brilliance Auto for several years now. In fact, the largest production plant of BMW in the world came into reality because of this joint venture.

It is also a fact that BMW was trying to get ahead of the game from the Chinese organization. The company mentioned that it was interested in completely owning Brilliance Automotive. The plans did not push through and BMW might have possibly reduced its chances with the situation today. Chinese partners of BMW are greatly significant considering that the Asian market contributes to approximately 30% of all sales recorded globally. The first hopeful financial results for BMW greatly depends on the Chinese sales following the pandemic effect.