The long overdue financial report data of Faraday future (hereinafter referred to as FF) shows that its loss has expanded again. However, FF firmly stated: "we will deliver the first batch of FF 91 electric vehicles in the third quarter of this year as planned." On May 14, FF finally announced the fourth quarter and annual financial results of 2021. According to the financial report, the net loss of FF in 2021 was US $517 million (about RMB 3.516 billion), while the net loss in the same period in 2020 was US $147 million.
FF 91 (photo source: Faraday future)
Meanwhile, as of December 31, 2021, FF had a cash balance of $505 million; By March 31, 2022, its cash balance was only $276 million. In other words, in just one quarter, FF's cash expenditure was as high as $230 million.
As the delivery time of FF 91 approaches, the speed of FF burning money is still accelerating.
Loss expansion
According to the financial report, as of December 31, 2021, the annual operating expenses of FF in 2021 were US $354 million (equivalent to about RMB 2.403 billion), an increase of more than 4 times compared with the operating expenses of US $65 million (equivalent to about RMB 441 million) in 2020. "The increase in operating expenses is mainly due to the increase in engineering, design and testing services." FF said. This means that FF 91 mass production delivery is approaching.
At the same time, the net loss of FF in 2021 reached US $517 million, an increase of 251% over the previous year. For the reasons for the increase in net loss, FF explained that due to the significant increase in operating expenses, the losses from changes in the fair value of bills payable to related parties, bills payable priced at fair value and warrant liabilities, as well as the losses from the processing of bills payable to related parties, bills payable and accounts payable to suppliers.
The decrease in cash was partly due to the planned repayment of $97 million in notes and interest payable from December 31, 2021 to March 31, 2022.
This is a late financial report.
In fact, the disclosure of FF's 2021 third quarterly report and annual report was postponed. FF disclosed the third quarterly report of last year on May 6. The NASDAQ listing qualification Department issued a notice that if Faraday fails to submit the annual report of 2021 and the first quarterly report of 2022 on or before May 16, 2022, it will face delisting risk.
It is worth noting that, as part of the internal investigation, FF said in the announcement released on April 14: dismiss the executive [office] of its founder Jia Yueting( https://microsoft.pvxt.net/P0JMe ) r) But he will remain chief product & amp; User officer. At the end of the announcement, it was also announced that Wang Jiawei, the company's vice president of global capital markets, who had been suspended since January 31 this year, had decided to resign from the company. Wang Jiawei, Jia Yueting's nephew, had been in charge of Faraday's future financing.
Last October, J capital research, an American investment institution, released a short report on FF, saying that FF "can't sell a car". To this end, FF established a special committee composed of independent directors to investigate the relevant allegations. The survey results showed that among the 14000 vehicle orders officially announced, only a few hundred were paid, and the "FF 91 order fraud" was exposed.
The delay in the announcement of the company's previous financial results, FF said. With the release of the financial report as scheduled, the delisting crisis of FF was relieved.
"First come first"
If only from the time axis, Jia Yueting joined the electric vehicle industry quite early, which proves his long-term vision. But up to now, its first model has not been mass produced yet, and the manufacturing process has lagged behind the later "Wei Xiaoli".
From the rupture of LETV's capital chain to avoiding the United States, and then to the delayed delivery time of FF 91, it seems that it is difficult for Jia Yueting to get rid of the label of "Lao Lai".
Statistics show that in 2014, Jia Yueting founded Faraday future. In 2017, the FF 91 prototype was unveiled for the first time. It was announced that mass production would be realized by the end of 2018 and delivered in the first quarter of 2019. However, as Jia Yueting and Evergrande competed for control, the mass production plan was shelved; In July 2020, Jia Yueting once again announced that "there is only one foot left from mass production", but it failed to materialize. In July 2021, FF was listed through special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and private investment public equity (pipe) transactions.
Jia Yueting appeared in the live broadcast of quasi mass production vehicles (screenshot of FF live broadcast)
On February 23, 2022, the FF 91 quasi mass production car finally came off the production line. Jia Yueting also appeared in the live broadcast and released the picture of taking a car to test near the Hanford factory.
Many people regard the mass production of FF 91 as the consideration of Jia Yueting's success or failure in building a car. However, due to the delay in the final mass production of electric vehicle ff91, investors' confidence in Faraday's future is also decreasing.
However, according to the report, in the shareholding information of directors and executives, Jia Yueting, founder and former CEO, personally holds 72749 shares, accounting for less than 1%. CEO Bi Fukang holds 866637 shares, accounting for less than 1%.
It is reported that FF top holding is the largest shareholder of FF, holding 36.2%. FF top holding is controlled by FF's management. The FF management committee holds 80% of the shares of FF top holding, while the other 20% is held by Jia Yueting's creditor trust. Meanwhile, season smart limited, an indirect subsidiary of Evergrande group, is the second largest shareholder of FF, holding 20.5%. In addition, the founding future credits trust holds 6.1%.
The report shows that as of March 31, 2022, FF has obtained 401 ff91 advance orders. However, in today's rapidly rising electric vehicle market, this achievement is mediocre.
According to the conference of ff91 quasi mass production version held by Faraday at the beginning of this year, ff91 will be officially put into production in July this year. "We are still confident to deliver the first model FF 91 in the third quarter of this year." Faraday's future global CEO Bi Fukang said. According to the plan, FF will successively launch FF 91 series, FF 81 series and FF 71 series models in the next five years.
On May 13, FF completed the installation of pilot equipment in the construction area before the production of Hanford factory in California, USA. It is expected that the initial annual production capacity will be 10000 vehicles. According to the current schedule, FF management expects the Hanford plant to start production in the third quarter of 2022.
Now, FF 91 has entered the final sprint period before putting into production. With the continuous shrinking of funds, there are no more opportunities for trial and error in the mass production of ff91. Can FF 91, which cannot get rid of "Jia color", be successfully mass produced in the end? There's really not much time left for FF.
Text / Liu Shanshan