On December 17, 2017, a deserted factory in North America attracted people's attention.

The newspapers at that time described it as follows:

As soon as I looked into the invisible factory building, a crow fluttered its wings from the abandoned factory building; a fully loaded freight train roared in, but it headed in the other direction at the fork of the track. the track leading to the factory is overgrown.

The nearly 900000-square-foot factory, which has been abandoned for 16 years, is currently run by only one person.They didn't do anything, there was no car-building equipment, nothing, only a safety engineer went to work at 9 o'clock every morning, but he wasn't here all day.

In this way, who would have thought that four years later, at the beginning of 2021, the company coming out of this factory would unexpectedly go public. What is even more unexpected is that the founder of this listed company "screwed up" Letv, who "fled" from China to Jia Yueting, an American Laolai.

The most fantastic thing is that when the company went public, its boss and founder, Jia Yueting, no longer had equity and control, and was downgraded to an employee of his own company.

All this is so unreal.Just as its name Far-a-day Future: a day in the distant future.

1 gambler or liar?

At a time when Leeco was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2017, an article entitled "the Capital embezzlement of accountant Jia" scratched the bottom of all kinds of black history on the road to wealth of Boss Jia's family.

That's what human nature is. Idealists and liars have always been one step away. If it is done, you will be a great idealist; if you fail, you will be a fraudulent liar.

Indeed, in 2015, Leeco's market capitalization is approaching hundreds of billions, and who would have thought of the dismal outcome two years later when he became the "number one brother" on the gem.

Reviewing the entrepreneurial history of Boss Jia, I have to admit that he is extremely good at catching the tuyere.From 1995 to 2002, he has been involved in coal processing, printing, transportation, wire and other industries, but also set up a computer training school, a wide range of design business, and each time can quickly get a sum of money.

This is precisely the weakness of Boss Jia's character: fickle, unfocused, and unskilled in core technology.

Around 2010, Boss Jia keenly captured the business opportunities of the "Internet era" and began to plan the grand blueprint of "Internet ecology" on PPT, so as to build Leeco empire. This was a cutting-edge concept at that time, and most of the later BAT, Meituan, Huawei and XIAOMI followed this path.

But Leeco's territory is too large, and the cash model can not run, so there are all kinds of problems soon. In 2017, Boss Jia left a bold saying that "I will bear the burden" suddenly realized "running away", and Letv's empire announced the disintegration of "thunderstorm".

The trapped creditors had no choice but to beat their breasts, including Mr. Jia's fellow-townsman in Shanxi and Sun Hongbin, chairman of the board of directors of Sunac China, who invested more than 15 billion yuan to Letv in 2017.Boss Jia, on the other hand, went into exile in the United States to continue his dream of building FF cars.

As for Letv, who has a market capitalization of 100 billion yuan, he collapsed in two years. Is Boss Jia giving money to FF through financial technology? we don't know his inner world.But up to now, no one knows how expensive it is to build cars. To be sure, Boss Jia's "Victory Escape" brought to the United States is not enough money.

More importantly, can a transoceanic ticket really cut off the remains of Lao Jia and Letv, a hundred-footed bug, as well as the grievances of tens of thousands of employees, dealers and suppliers?It turns out: no.。

In the American market, your credit is far more important than the Jinshan Silver Mountain you borrowed from a bankrupt company.This is probably something Jia Yueting, who was born as a farmer, could not understand before.

In this regard, foreign analysts put it more bluntly:Faraday's future financial funds depend to a large extent on the equity pledge of the main investor Jia Yueting to Leeco, a Chinese listed company, which leads to a resonant financial effect between France and France, which has dragged down Leeco. It has also led to repeated delays in Faraday's car-building plans.

In fact, FF has a long history. Jia Yueting registered his car company around 2014. At that time, it was the first wave of "building cars" in the world.

However, Jia Yueting's debt problems in China have become a fatal factor hindering FF's access to funds.On July 10, 2017, almost as Jia Yueting landed in North America, FF announced that it had abandoned plans to build a plant in Nevada because of financial problems.

In fact, FF itself is a good asset; but the value of this good asset can not be released, in the final analysis, it lies in two factors: the first is Jia Yueting's debt, and the second is Jia Yueting and his personality.

2 good cards failed, and the "Josh" alliance broke with blood.

Car building, after all, is a very popular concept, whether it is traditional car companies or capital bosses, are thinking about how to touch this hot spot. Since there is nothing wrong with FF itself, the problem is Jia Yueting, can we control FF by letting Jia Yueting out?

It's not that there is no such attempt.

From 2017 to 2018, Boss Jia urgently needs to find a financier to "renew his life" for FF. Coincidentally, Xu Jiayin, the boss of Evergrande Group, a wealthy Chinese real estate businessman, is determined to join the new energy car track at this time. Flowers, fire cooking oil, the two hit it off.

In June 2018, Evergrande acquired 100 per cent of Hong Kong Shiying for HK $6.746 billion, indirectly acquiring a 45 per cent stake in Smart King, making it the largest shareholder.Smart King is a joint venture between Hong Kong Shi Ying and Jia Yueting and other former shareholders of FF.Wholly owned "FF USA" and "FF Hong Kong". According to the agreement, Shi Ying will invest US $800m first, and the remaining US $1.2 billion will be paid one after another.

But this is a kind of cooperation of "different rights of the same stock"--Evergrande Health, which holds 45 per cent of the shares, has only 12 per cent of Smart King's voting rights, while former FF shareholders such as Jia Yueting have 88 per cent of the voting rights.

Boss Jia wants money, but he doesn't want control of the real estate company. But at this time, Jia Yueting still felt that only he could lead FF to "return home" and was unwilling to admit that he was the heel of Achilles.

It was calm at first, but according to Boss Jia's speed of spending money, soon there was a grudge in cooperation.。

At the beginning of 2020, the down payment of US $800m from Evergrande to FF was quickly burned out under the "efforts" of Boss Jia.In order to continue to operate, a supplementary "prepayment agreement" suddenly surfaced. However, how can Boss Xu accept this further erosion of liquidity?

Around the question of who defaulted, there was a heated debate between the two sides. Boss Xu said that Boss Jia did not meet the payment conditions. Boss Jia said that the conditions were completed but Boss Xu refused to pay. Behind the quarrel is a struggle for control. Boss Xu wants to cut off FF's external financing channels in order to control FF;, but Jia Yueting is determined not to give way.

The two sides even went to court. Later, Boss Jia won a resounding victory, and Evergrande was ruled that it could not stop FF from raising funds from other sources. Evergrande withdrew from FF's investment. Boss Xu began to build his own car.

Evergrande's strategy of investing in FF is not wrong, but it is a pity that timing is wrong.Cooperation is like love, on the wrong time node, you will not meet the right person.

3 inflection point: boss Jia becomes "Jia employee"

At this point, another boss was "cheated", and no one dared to lend money to Boss Jia.With his reputation tarnished in China and impossible to move in the United States, Boss Jia was finally cornered.And the fate of FF is also besieged on all sides.

In October 2019, Jia Yueting filed for personal bankruptcy restructuring in the United States. at that time, some people thought that Jia Yueting wanted to get rid of domestic debt and travel light. But domestic creditors are not willing to rest.

After a long hearing and arbitration, Jia Yueting's personal bankruptcy reorganization plan was finally confirmed and approved by the bankruptcy reorganization Court of Central California at the hearing held in May 2020, that is, Jia Yueting put all assets (FF equity) into the creditor trust and repay the debt through the value of FF equity in the future.

Although for the "audience", this is still tantamount to throwing the pot, and Boss Jia's thousand-word letter to creditors, the number of buyers is also limited.However, in the view of the capital market, it is equivalent to Jia Yueting's "decoupling" from FF. This is undoubtedly a good thing. Because no one can bear to keep chasing Boss Jia, who is in debt.

Jia Yueting, who lost his equity, toChief Product and user Officer (CPUO)Works for FF in his identity. In his own words, it's called"starting a business as an employee"。

So, there is one question left: since Jia Yueting is no longer the boss, who will be the owner of FF's home?

In September 2019, almost at the same time Jia Yueting filed for personal bankruptcy, FF appointed his new CEO--.Carsten Breitfeld, a world-famous electric vehicle expert with rich experience in making cars.

Bi Fukang worked at BMW for 20 years as a group vice president, leading a range of key engineering departments including chassis development, powertrain development and corporate strategy. As the head of BMW's i8 project and the father of BMW's i8, he successfully launched the i8 in just 38 months, BMW's first plug-in hybrid supercar.

In January 2017, Bi Fukang joined Chinese new energy car brand Baiteng. After leaving Baiteng in 2019 and serving briefly at iconiq, he finally joined FF. According to Breitfeld's own account, he and Jia Yueting have known each other for 4 years, have a profound friendship, and appreciate Jia Yueting's dream.

No matter how sincere it is, it has been joined by industry heroes like Breitfeld, which undoubtedly provides a strong endorsement for FF.

At this point, FF has finally gathered the harmony of the time, the earth and the people:

A golden era of the development of new energy vehicles, a country that vigorously promotes clean energy, and a management with industry bulls but no boss Jia.

4 another case of "predicament reversal" of Xinneng car

Tesla, Inc. 's entry into China in early 2020 ignited the new energy market, while in the middle of this year, NIO Inc. received investment from the Hefei municipal government to bring the dead back to life, which provided a way of financing for the new energy vehicle market."New way of playing"：

-- Local governments have injected capital into "dying" high-quality new energy car companies in a way similar to Leverage Buyout, leading their capital valuations out of the path of "adversity reversal".

From 2018 to 2019, Li Bin, founder of NIO Inc. Automobile, was named the "worst person of the year" by netizens. Later, the Hefei municipal government invested 7 billion yuan to turn stone into gold, superimposed the full support of the supporting industrial chain, and NIO Inc. 's own management costs were highly slimmed down, the company was reborn in half a year, and the share price increased 13 times.

Hefei alone should be able to earn tens of billions of yuan in equity returns, but for a local government, NIO Inc. 's spillover effects far outweigh equity gains, such as employment opportunities, the industrial chain of energy vehicles, the city's new energy and high-tech business cards, and so on.

Later, the gambling agreement between the Shanghai municipal government and Tesla, Inc. was the same logic.Today's FF still has the same logic.

After joining FF, Bi Fukang made drastic reforms to FF, sorted out financial and management problems, and led designers to spend a year and a half improving cars and getting ready for production, saying goodbye to PPT completely.

On January 28th, Bi Fukang took advantage of the victory and announced that it would raise money through a backdoor acquisition of a special purpose company (SPAC) through a listing of US stocks. The move reaped Qixiang's ability to provide about $1 billion for FF, valuing the company at about $3.4 billion (22 billion yuan).

The lineup of investors is also luxurious: the common stock PIPE includes more than 30 long-term institutional shareholders from the United States, Europe and China.The cornerstone investors of PIPE include China's top three private car mainframe factories and China's first-tier cities.(Tier 1 Chinese City). Many people speculate that it will be Shenzhen.

5 conclusion

Many years ago, Boss Jia, who used to jump repeatedly between tuyere, made a mess of FF. Now, we have to admit that FF's beautiful turnaround has come as a surprise.

However, it is sad that in the end, it was not Jia Yueting who brought FF back to China, but quite the opposite-FF completed the "upwind turnaround" without Jia Yueting and got a "ticket" to return to China.

"salted fish turn over" is FF, but people are calling Boss Jia to return home.

Perhaps Jia Yueting's halo and grievances are so big and deep that they cover up the truth of FF.But the capital market is rational, as long as Jia Yueting is still a day, FF is doomed to be a place of chicken feathers, a pool of mud. As soon as Jia Yueting confirmed that he was out, FF immediately got fengshui and soared.

This is really an irony.

As FF's valuation rises again and again, Boss Jia's assets packaged into the creditor's trust are almost enough to pay off his debts. The day when Boss Jia and his domestic creditors "settle their debts" is not far away. However, is this the end of the egg, or another Pandora's box?

In the future, Boss Jia, who has paid off his debts, will once again fly in the tuyere and let his "dream"suffocate" with everyone.

Who knows?