Breakingviews – Beware Chinese used-car dealer’s sticker price – Reuters India

HONG KONG (Reuters Breakingviews) – It all the time pays to be cautious in relation to used-car sellers. Kaixin Auto, which sells second-hand automobiles on-line in China, is not any exception. The corporate, whose title interprets as “completely happy”, has skilled a 2,300% surge in its inventory worth over the past two months. The rally warrants a more in-depth inspection.

For one factor, Kaixin appears to be alongside for a magical experience powered by investor enthusiasm for electrical automobiles. Some excellent news for Tesla, together with its upcoming inclusion within the S&P 500 index, has helped cost the market caps of Nio, Li Auto and Xpeng, too. For the spillover to achieve $453 million Kaixin feels like a stretch.

It isn’t a producer and has little else in frequent with Tesla. A plan unveiled earlier this month to hitch up with Haitaoche, an e-commerce outfit specialising in imported automobiles, additionally warrants scepticism. This new accomplice says it needs to develop into electrical automobiles, however offered little element on the technique. Neither is it clear how Kaixin might help, contemplating that inexperienced fashions have questionable resale worth as their batteries age.

Kaixin’s dizzying inventory rally additionally overlooks different structural and efficiency quirks. The chief govt and chief working officer resigned even earlier than the merger has been accomplished. It reported a decidedly sad $69 million web loss final 12 months as gross sales tumbled by nearly a fifth. Its dad or mum, social-media community Renren, used a shell firm to take the corporate public in 2018, with efficiency and stock-price incentives that enable it to step by step improve its stake. Solely 2% of its shares are freely traded, in keeping with Eikon, as Haitaoche prepares to take a controlling 51% curiosity. It’s all greater than sufficient cause to blanch at Kaixin’s sticker worth.

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