Repay loans, recruit new employees, and Zhongtai restarts production for real.
Have you noticed that Zhongtai Auto has been getting more and more active recently?
Since the core senior management changes last October, Zhongtai Auto has been issuing announcements at a speed comparable to many major car - making giants. First, it successively reached settlements with several creditors, and then sold shares.
Moreover, it seems that Zhongtai Auto is serious this time. The latest news shows that Zhongtai has repaid nearly 400 million in loan debts ahead of schedule. Now, Zhongtai only has 200 million yuan in due external debts.
Not only that, Zhongtai Auto has also been reported to have launched a large - scale recruitment, covering positions in fields such as vehicle architecture, three - electric systems, and intelligentization. All these signs indicate that Zhongtai Auto really intends to make a comeback.
Since the second half of last year, WM Motor, Jiyue, etc. have successively reported "resurrection" news. It seems that the comeback competition for new car - making forces has arrived. Will there be a comeback competition for established car - making forces?
01 Preserve Assets First
If you pay attention to Zhongtai's movements in the past two months, it's not difficult to find a phenomenon - Zhongtai Auto is sparing no expense to preserve its assets to avoid having its assets forcibly auctioned due to debt disputes.
At the end of December last year, Zhongtai Auto issued an announcement saying that it had reached a settlement with two major creditors, the Yongkang Sub - branch of Bank of China and the Yongkang Sub - branch of China Construction Bank, avoiding further debt disputes.
Previously, due to financial loan contract disputes, these two banks applied to freeze 335 million shares of stocks in Zhongtai's bankruptcy property disposal special account and a total of about 4.2642 million yuan in bank deposits. Now, the freeze has been lifted.
Of course, the settlement doesn't mean not paying the money. However, Zhongtai Auto guarantees to pay off debts of over 400 million yuan by the end of January 2026.
Specifically, Zhongtai Auto needs to repay a total of 222 million yuan in principal, interest, and lawyer's fees to the Yongkang Sub - branch of Bank of China. It will pay 10.178 million yuan before December 31, 2025, including 10 million yuan in principal and 178,000 yuan in lawyer's fees. The remaining balance will be settled before January 31, 2026.
In addition, it also needs to repay a total of 183 million yuan in debts to the Yongkang Sub - branch of China Construction Bank. It will pay 10 million yuan in principal before December 31, 2025, and the debts also need to be settled before January 31. This means that Zhongtai Auto needs to repay a total of about 380 million yuan in debts to the two banks in January 2025.
Now that it's the end of January, Zhongtai has really repaid the debts.
On January 26, Zhongtai Auto issued an announcement about completing the early repayment to the two bank creditors. The announcement said that as of the announcement date, Zhongtai Auto had repaid the remaining 212 million yuan in debts to the Yongkang Sub - branch of Bank of China and the remaining 172 million yuan in debts to the Yongkang Sub - branch of China Construction Bank. According to the mediation agreement, Zhongtai Auto has fulfilled its debt repayment obligations to the Yongkang Sub - branch of Bank of China and the Yongkang Sub - branch of China Construction Bank respectively.
It's worth mentioning that earlier, Zhongtai Auto also reached a pre - court mediation with another shareholder creditor, the Jinhua Sub - branch of Zheshang Bank. According to the settlement agreement, Zhongtai Auto will repay about 339 million yuan in principal and interest on the loan from the Yongkang Sub - branch of Zheshang Bank in three installments.
Zhongtai Auto's successive actions of settling first and then repaying the debts are quite obvious. By settling first, it avoids large - scale financial loan disputes from entering the enforcement stage and circumvents the extreme risk of further asset seizure and auction due to a losing judgment.
After all, previously, due to the forced demolition of the general assembly production line and related equipment of the T300 model of the whole vehicle under the Chongqing Branch of Hunan Jiangnan Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Zhongtai Auto, Zhongtai Auto directly lost the conditions for resuming production in 2025.
In addition, Zhongtai Auto can also lift the freeze on the stocks and bank deposits in the disposal special account and will promptly publicly dispose of the remaining debt - repayment stocks to repay the historical debts to creditors. At the same time, after paying the corresponding disposal costs, the proceeds from the disposal can be used to supplement the company's operating working capital.
The core purpose is self - evident. Only by preserving its core assets first can the plan to resume production be carried out. However, the prerequisite for all this to work is that Zhongtai Auto must have money. So, Zhongtai Auto chose to "rob Peter to pay Paul".
Because the nearly 400 million yuan in repayment funds comes from a 400 - million - yuan loan that Zhongtai Auto signed with Yongkang Rural Commercial Bank not long ago. As soon as the first batch of 335 million yuan in loan funds arrived, it immediately repaid the debts ahead of schedule.
This 400 - million - yuan loan is within the 500 - million - yuan comprehensive pre - credit line that Yongkang Rural Commercial Bank intended to grant to Zhongtai Auto at the end of last year and is under the 4.5 - billion - yuan total credit framework authorized by the company's 2025 general meeting of shareholders. The borrowing period is from January 22, 2026, to November 30, 2028.
The announcement also emphasizes that this fund will be earmarked for two purposes: one is to replace the settled historical overdue debts, and the other is to support the resumption of production in the whole - vehicle sector.
It's also worth mentioning that the annual interest rate of this loan is only 2.8%, lower than the 3.65% interest rate of its historical debts. In this way, it not only reduces a lot of interest but also avoids overdue defaults. For Zhongtai, it relieves the urgent need. Most importantly, the freeze on relevant assets has been lifted, clearing the obstacles for Zhongtai Auto to revitalize its assets.
However, as the saying goes, "distant water cannot quench present thirst". With no improvement in the vehicle manufacturing business, Zhongtai still needs to constantly "find money" to fill the holes.
The most common way is to take out loans. In addition to the 500 - million - yuan comprehensive pre - credit line from Yongkang Rural Commercial Bank, Zhongtai Auto also announced that it had signed a "Loan Contract" with Shenzhen Anjixuan Technology Co., Ltd., with a borrowing amount of no more than 38 million yuan.
Secondly, it is collecting debts. Zhongtai Auto previously reached a settlement with Shanghai Automotive Transmission Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. Shanghai Automotive Transmission Co., Ltd. will pay 29 million yuan to Zhongtai Auto within 15 days after receiving the mediation letter.
Finally, it is selling stocks. Zhongtai Auto said that on the day when the judicial freeze on the special account for the disposal of the bankrupt enterprise's property is lifted, it will dispose of no more than 3% of the company's total shares, no more than 151 million shares, through centralized bidding and block trading. It is also clearly stated that all the funds obtained from the disposal will be used to repay historical debts.
If calculated based on Zhongtai Auto's latest closing price of 3.35 yuan per share, the market value of these 151 million shares is about 505 million yuan. According to the latest announcement issued by Zhongtai Auto, the total principal of Zhongtai Auto's currently accumulated due and unpaid debts is less than 210 million yuan.
This means that Zhongtai Auto has more than enough to repay the debts.
02 Is There a Chance in the Comeback Competition?
If Zhongtai's decision to pay off debts even by taking out loans is to preserve its core assets, then the real action indicating that Zhongtai intends to promote the resumption of production is a poster of Zhongtai Auto Engineering Research Institute's large - scale recruitment that circulated on the Internet a few days ago.
This is also the largest - scale public recruitment of technical talents since Zhongtai went through bankruptcy reorganization and gradually faded out of the mainstream view.
According to the recruitment list shown on the poster, the recruitment covers a complete R & D chain from vehicle architecture, three - electric systems to intelligentization and networking. It includes more than 20 core technology fields such as bus diagnosis, power batteries, intelligent driving, vehicle thermal management, and chip development.
In particular, positions in intelligent driving, chip development, and electronic and electrical architecture account for a significant proportion. The number of software, algorithm, and architecture - related positions has approached or even exceeded that of traditional mechanical and engineering - related positions.
It's also worth noting that the recruitment entity this time is the "Zhongtai Auto Engineering Research Institute", not the human resources department. This means that the recruitment has a clear strategic R & D orientation, rather than simply supplementing ordinary production or sales positions.
According to a report by Yicai Global, an insider has said, "Since the recruitment information was released, a lot of resumes have been received. On average, there are 5 - 6 applicants who meet the job requirements for each position. Currently, about 20% of the positions already have potential candidates." "The two most concerned questions for the current applicants are the salary situation and the job stability."
The insider also revealed that a new project was launched in 2025, involving new energy vehicles. This recruitment is exactly to prepare for the resumption of production.
For domestic automobile users, Zhongtai Auto is by no means an unfamiliar name.
In 2016, Zhongtai Auto's sales volume reached 333,100 vehicles, a "height" that many new forces have failed to reach after years of development. In 2017, Zhongtai Auto back - doored into the stock market through Jinma Co., Ltd., with its market value once exceeding 3 billion yuan, revenue reaching 20.804 billion yuan, and net profit reaching 1.136 billion yuan.
Later, due to vehicle model quality and capital chain crises, the production line came to a halt, assets were frozen, and the stock was once on the verge of delisting. In 2020, it entered the pre - reorganization process.
In October 2021, Shenzhen Merchant Holdings Group Co., Ltd. became its "white knight". After the reorganization, Zhongtai chose the new energy vehicle as the comeback track. However, the company's performance not only did not improve substantially but also declined.
After the so - called "white knight" Jiangsu Shenshang withdrew, the "imaginary white knights" for Zhongtai Auto changed one after another. Now, what makes many people believe that Zhongtai Auto is really promoting the resumption of production is related to the personnel changes in Zhongtai Auto since the second half of 2025.
In October last year, in the list of candidates for the ninth - session board of directors announced by Zhongtai Auto, there were personnel from the 'Chery system' such as Li Lizhong, the former chairman of Chery New Energy, and Lin Longhua, a senior executive of Chery Automobile. At the same time, there were also people such as Xu Mingzhe and Ma Yanhong who have work experience related to the BBK system founded by Duan Yongping.
Later, Han Biwen, a former key figure at Chery, was directly promoted to chairman only two months after being hired as the president. With the 'Chery system' that 'understands car - making' and the 'BBK system' that 'has capital', the market has interpreted the rumor that "Duan Yongping enters Zhongtai through related parties and jointly plans the new energy vehicle business with Chery, OPPO, and vivo".
Subsequently, Zhongtai Auto, Duan Yongping himself, and relevant related parties have successively issued statements clearly denying the cooperation rumor.
This series of news is like a smokescreen. Although it's hard to tell the truth from the falsehood, it can be seen that Zhongtai Auto has the desire to survive. However, with Zhongtai Auto's current situation, there are still great obstacles for it to return to the game.
In the first three quarters of 2025, its operating income was about 419 million yuan, with a net loss of 223 million yuan, and the asset - liability ratio reached 99.41%. The revenue from the whole - vehicle business was almost zero.
In the current situation where the reshuffle of the automotive industry is accelerating, does the market still need a player like Zhongtai?