In the evening of August 22nd, Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd. (“Dongfeng Group”), which had been suspended from trading for 10 days, suddenly issued an announcement late at night stating that its subsidiary Voyah Automobile will list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange via the introduction method. Meanwhile, Dongfeng Group will complete its privatization and delisting simultaneously.
It is understood that “listing by introduction” is a method for already issued securities to apply for listing, characterized by no new shares being issued or financing involved at the time of listing; only the securities held by existing shareholders are listed and traded on the exchange. Simply put, after the completion of this transaction, Voyah Automobile will achieve independent H-share listing, while Dongfeng Group will delist from the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.
According to the announcement, the transaction will be settled using a combination of Voyah Automobile equity and cash consideration, with an overall acquisition price of HK$10.85 per share, including HK$6.68 in cash consideration and HK$4.17 in Voyah equity consideration. The announcement also states that the transaction will adopt a “share distribution + absorption merger” model, with the two core links being mutually conditional and advancing simultaneously. In the first phase, Dongfeng Group will distribute its 79.67% stake in Voyah Automobile to all shareholders in proportion to their shareholdings, after which Voyah Automobile will list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange via introduction. In the second phase, Dongfeng Motor Group (Wuhan) Investment Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned domestic subsidiary of Dongfeng Motor, will act as the absorption entity, paying equity consideration to Dongfeng Group’s controlling shareholder Dongfeng Motor and cash consideration to other minority shareholders to achieve 100% control of Dongfeng Group.
On the same day, Dongfeng Group also released its 2025 first-half performance report. During the reporting period, Dongfeng Motor Group’s revenue was 54.533 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.6%; gross profit was 7.599 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.0%; net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 55 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 92% compared to 684 million yuan in the same period. Regarding the reasons for the performance change, Dongfeng Group previously stated in its “Profit Warning” announcement that the main reasons were the continuous decline of the joint venture non-luxury brand market, leading to a significant drop in sales and profits of the joint venture passenger vehicle business. In addition, to cope with fierce market competition, the company increased investment in research and development, brand building, channel construction, and marketing in the independent business sector.
It is understood that Dongfeng Group covers diversified businesses such as passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, and auto parts, and urgently needs to optimize resource allocation and promote transformation and upgrading through integration. In the passenger vehicle sector, Dongfeng Motor Group has established joint venture brands such as Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd., Dongfeng Honda, and Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën through cooperation with many internationally renowned automobile brands. Its independent brands include Dongfeng Passenger Vehicles, Mengshi Technology, Dongfeng Voyah, and Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor. In terms of sales, Dongfeng Group’s cumulative sales in the first half of 2025 were 823,900 units, a year-on-year decrease of 14.7%. Among them, cumulative sales of new energy vehicles were 204,400 units, a year-on-year increase of 33.0%. Among sub-brands, cumulative sales of Dongfeng Nissan (including Dongfeng Infiniti and Venucia) decreased by 23.5% year-on-year to 252,800 units; Dongfeng Honda’s cumulative sales decreased by 37.4% year-on-year to 149,000 units; Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën decreased by 28.3% year-on-year to 27,000 units. Among independent brands, Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor’s cumulative sales in the first half of the year were 52,700 units, a year-on-year decrease of 15.1%; Dongfeng Passenger Vehicles in the independent sector achieved cumulative sales of 104,800 units, a year-on-year increase of 23.0%; Voyah Automobile’s cumulative sales were 56,100 units, a year-on-year increase of 84.8%.
Regarding the reasons for Dongfeng Group’s privatization and delisting, Dongfeng Group explained in the announcement that in recent years, the stock price performance of Dongfeng Group (0489.HK) has continued to weaken. As of July 31, 2025, Dongfeng Group’s closing price was HK$4.74 per share, corresponding to a price-to-book ratio of only about 0.24 times. Its market value has long been lower than its net asset value, basically losing its financing function as an H-share listing platform. Meanwhile, as the core business listing platform of Dongfeng Company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Dongfeng Group (0489.HK) has failed to meet overall performance expectations due to factors such as industry transformation and intensified market competition.
In contrast, Voyah Automobile has delivered impressive performance from 2022 to 2024. As the highest-quality new energy asset within the group, Voyah Automobile’s separate listing will help Dongfeng Company concentrate on developing the new energy vehicle industry, integrate high-quality resources into strategic emerging industries, and create long-term and sustainable investment value for Hong Kong stock shareholders. It will also further expand its financing channels through the Hong Kong capital market and enhance core brand competitiveness.
According to data, Voyah Automobile is a high-end intelligent electric brand under Dongfeng Group, established in 2018 and officially launched in July 2020. Its first model, Voyah FREE, was launched in August 2021. Up to now, Voyah Automobile has launched models such as Voyah FREE, Voyah Dreamer, Voyah Chaser, and Voyah Zhiyin. In April this year, Voyah Automobile rolled off its 200,000th vehicle. As planned, Voyah Automobile will challenge an annual sales target of 200,000 units this year. As of the end of July this year, Voyah Automobile’s cumulative sales for the year reached 68,300 units, a year-on-year increase of 87.58%, including 12,100 units sold in July, a year-on-year increase of 101.75%, maintaining monthly sales of over 10,000 units for five consecutive months.
From the current development trend of Dongfeng Group, although it still has sufficient capital and strength to support its development, the law of survival of the fittest is accelerating in the fierce market competition. To go further, accelerating new energy transformation has become Dongfeng Group’s top priority for a long time to come. Especially in the context of the booming new energy vehicle market and the rapid rise of domestic independent brands, consumers’ car purchase concepts have begun to change, causing the market share of leading joint venture brands that previously dominated the market to be severely squeezed, with their sales generally facing a decline. Dongfeng Group is also facing the problem of declining sales of joint venture brands, which has affected its performance to a certain extent. For Dongfeng Group, opportunities and challenges coexist in the new energy vehicle industry. Independent brands have huge development space, and there is still much room for improvement and development in independent brands and new energy vehicles, which may become new growth drivers for Dongfeng Group’s future sales.
