Mercedes-Benz on Thursday announced the acquisition of a 3 percent stake, worth 1.34 billion yuan (US$191 million), in the motorcycle maker-turned-autonomous driving systems developer Chongqing Qianli Technology, three months after it was initially announced.
The deal was between Mercedes-Benz Digital Technology, the technology division of the German automaker, and Lifan Holdings, a Shanghai-traded company that sold 135.6 million shares of its Qianli unit at 9.87 yuan per share.
Therefore, Lifan Holdings, which had been the leading producer of motorcycles in China, previously owned over 5 percent of the shares in Qianli. After closing the deal, Mercedes-Benz became Qianli’s fifth-largest stakeholder.
Under the conditions of the deal, the shift of the shares “will not lead to changes in the controlling shareholders and actual controllers of the company, and will not affect the offer for acquisition.”
Mercedes-Benz also indicated that it had no plans to decrease the shareholding in Qianli within the next 12 months. The acquisition highlighted the activities of Mercedes-Benz to strengthen its relationship and strategic alliances in the largest automotive market in the world.
In the previous month, Mercedes-Benz, Tesla, and Volvo became the first foreign automobile manufacturers to be granted a trial in China to implement artificial intelligence chatbots in their cars, which could lead to a faster pace of how Beijing vets AI services.
The Beijing branch of the Cyberspace Administration registered the Mercedes-Benz virtual assistant as a generative AI service around the same time that the Shanghai branch of the regulator registered the xBot service of Tesla Shanghai and the local chatbot Xiao Wo of Volvo.
However, Mercedes-Benz has also invested in some of the emerging AI companies in China in the last couple of months. Lifan Holdings was established as a motorcycle producer in the year 1992, but subsequently expanded to produce car components.
It was backed by a private equity fund sponsored by Chinese automaker Geely and the Chongqing municipal government. Lifan Holdings Chairman Yin Qi is also the co-founder and former CEO of Chinese AI company Megvii, an Alibaba Group Holding-backed company. Hangzhou-based Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
