Apollo Future Mobility Group Limited (“AFMG”, the “Company”, HKEx stock code: 860.HK; and together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”) announced its first interim results for the six months ended 31 March 2020 (the “Period”) since its change in strategic position to become one of the world’s leading full-service mobility solutions provider.
Despite being faced with numerous macro challenges during the Period, the Company had successfully aligned its focus to the mobility technology solutions market and made progressive changes to the company structure. The Group recorded a moderate revenue of HK$256.9 million amidst drastic economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, in comparison to the 2019 interim results of HK$281.1 million. The Group’s loss attributable to owners of the Company for the Period was HK$203.4 million, which was mainly attributable to the fair value losses on financial assets and investment properties caused by the global market declined as well as the impairment of goodwill due to the termination of its legacy businesses. The board of directors are confident of the Group’s outlook after all acquisition plans, thus will retain the capital for future developments and in creating shareholder value in long-term.
Successful Completion of Apollo Acquisition and Rebranding
The Group’s English name was changed and registered as “Apollo Future Mobility Group Limited” on 13 March 2020 subsequent to the completion of the acquisition of Sino Partner Global Limited (“Apollo”). This transformation marks the Company’s determination in capturing new potential business opportunities and future developments in the mobility industry, and will better reflect the Group’s business strategies and expansion in new energy vehicle (“NEV(s)”) solutions and services.
Additionally, to further strengthen its ability to provide cutting edge technological solutions, the Group announced in October 2019 the proposed acquisition of Ideenion Automobil AG, a German mobility solutions provider principally engaged in the design, development and prototyping of internal combustion engine vehicles and NEVs (dubbed “Project Ideenion”). With its advanced design and engineering expertise, Project Ideenion will further enhance the Group’s ability to provide high-end technological solutions to customers upon the acquisition’s targeted completion in this year.
Following the acquisition of Apollo, the Group rebranded and focuses its business development on two pillars, which are Apollo Automobil and Apollo Advanced Technologies (AAT). In addition to the development and sales of hypercars and its cross-branding licensing business under the “Apollo” brand, the Group provides one-stop turnkey mobility technology solutions by integrating Apollo Automobil’s and the Group’s existing electric vehicle technologies, from ideation, design, modeling, engineering, simulation, prototype production, actual testing, to the delivery of pre-production prototypes to customers, striving to provide the global mobility market with a seamless and comprehensive solution platform.
Steadfast Blueprint for Business Development
During the Period, and prior to the completion of the Apollo acquisition, Apollo delivered two (2) of its flagship hypercar model, the Apollo Intensa Emozione (the “Apollo IE”). Delivery ceremonies took place in Miami, USA and Kyoto, Japan in late 2019. The delivery of the first two (2) Apollo IEs received worldwide media coverage. The Group is now working diligently on delivering the remaining eight (8) Apollo IE by 2021 and creating the next generation consumer products. Both Apollo and GLM, subsidiaries of the Company, are in the process of designing and developing next generation self branded vehicles. The Group is confident in its robust product pipeline and the future of its mobility business.
Regarding the mobility solutions segment, in response to national policies for rapid development of electric vehicle (“EV(s)”), the Group grasped new opportunity to accelerate its business expansion plan in China’s NEV market by establishing a joint venture company (the “JV Company”) with Jiangsu Jemmell New Energy Automobile Company Limited (a related company of Jiangsu Jinpeng Group Company, one of the PRC’s largest EV tricycle manufacturers) during the Period. The JV Company will engage primarily in the design, research and development, and production of NEVs under the “GLM” brand and related automobile parts, along with related technical support and after-sales services. The EVs produced will be targeting the younger generations to meet the market demands in the PRC, Japan, and Southeast Asia.
Significant Breakthrough in Technological Advancement
GLM made significant breakthrough in technological advancement by cooperating with ROHM Co., Ltd (“ROHM”), a leading semiconductor and electronic component manufacturer in Japan, in co-developing 800V silicon carbide (“SiC”) dual inverters which can greatly reduce the charging time of EVs. To maintain its competitive edge, not only will the Group continue to accelerate its progress for the launch of the disruptive 800V SiC dual inverter, but also consider cooperation opportunities with motor manufacturers to market the new 800V SiC dual inverter, coupled with the battery management system with solid state battery and the motor manufacturers’ own motors as a complete package to international OEMs. The Group is also exploring a licensing model to propel a new revenue stream in the near future and to better focus on research & development and innovation.
Furthermore, the Group is in the process of developing its own vehicle control unit, which is used to control all functions of the vehicle. The Group will continue to make unremitting efforts to optimize its core technologies and strengthen its capabilities of providing state-of-the-art solutions.
Propel New Revenue Source with Licensing Model
The Group has been actively exploring different sources of income leveraging on its renowned brand name and proprietary technologies. Apart from exploring to license its newly developed dual inverters, in May 2020, Apollo entered into the License Agreement with De Tomaso Automobili Limited (“De Tomaso”, an Italian car-manufacturing company focused on making sport cars) whereby De Tomaso is granted the rights to use the new vehicular platform designed and developed by Apollo (“the Platform”) in their “De Tomaso” branded vehicles worldwide at a minimum aggregate license fee of US$10,000,000 (equivalent to approximately HK$78,000,000) with a term of three years. The Group expects that the first-class Platform will also appeal to other automobile OEMs and hence continue to generate more revenue to the Group under the licensing model. It will continue to explore similar collaborations in the future to fulfill its mobility strategy.
“The first half of FY2020 had been a challenging period for businesses across all sectors. Despite the complications, our Group was fortunate to be comparably less affected as others,”
“The full transformation to an integrated mobility technology provider and the COVID-19 pandemic put slight stresses to our books temporarily. However, in light of favorable policies such as incentives for the deployment of charging infrastructure and technological advancement, the rapid growth momentum of the global mobility engineering market is expected to grow with unprecedented opportunities. It is expected that the demand for mobility solutions will increase in the long-term as OEMs look for significant cost reductions while outsourcing offers considerable ongoing savings and valuable innovations.” comments Mr. Ho King Fung, Eric, Chairman of Apollo Future Mobility Group.
Mr. Ho continues, “Our Group is confident that as the PRC gradually opens its automobile market to foreign automobile companies, the Group will be able to partake with our proprietary technologies accumulated through recent acquisitions and strategic cooperations. Along with our recent exciting progress with De Tomaso, we are set to be a pioneer in the mobility technology solutions market, and seek to further expand our footprint across the globe in the coming years.”
About Apollo Future Mobility Group Limited
Apollo Future Mobility Group Limited (“AFMG”, stock code: 860.HK) is a leading integrated mobility technology solution provider with proprietary technologies that are disruptive to mobility industry. It is determined to build a world-leading one-stop service platform for “future mobility” through the integration of globally advanced mobility assets and networks.
After completing the acquisition of 86.06% of Apollo Automobil, a European high-performance hypercar developer, in March 2020, the Group rebranded as “Apollo Future Mobility Group”, focusing its business development on two pillars, which are Apollo Automobil and Apollo Advanced Technologies (AAT). In addition to the development and sales of hypercars and its cross-branding licensing business under the “Apollo” brand, the Group provides one-stop turnkey solutions by integrating Apollo Automobil and the Group’s existing electric vehicle technologies, from ideation, design, modeling, engineering, simulation, prototype production, actual testing, to the delivery of pre-production prototypes to customers, striving to provide the global mobility market with a seamless and comprehensive solution platform.
The Group’s subsidiaries include Apollo Automobil, a high-performance European hypercar developer, and GLM Co. Ltd, the first electric vehicle developer in Japan. In addition, the Group has also expanded its mobility technologies by investing in Divergent Technologies, Inc., the world’s first 3D metal printing automotive manufacturing platform, and EV Power, a leading electric vehicle charging solutions provider.
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