Evergrande Group, China’s second-largest property developer by sales, has bought into American new energy automaker Faraday Future in a HK$6.746 billion (US$860 million) deal, The Paper reported.
According to the company statement, the Group has acquired a 100% stake in the Hong Kong-based Time Good Limited, and thus indirectly acquired 45% of the shares in Smart King. The latter is a joint venture founded by Time Good and Faraday Future’s original shareholders represented by Jia Yueting.
After the transaction, Evergrande becomes the largest shareholder of Smart King. While Smart King wholly owns Faraday Future USA and Faraday Future Hong Kong.
After four years of R&D, the electric automaker is planning to launch its FF91 model. The company’s Hanford plant in Los Angeles will be ready for mass production by the end of 2018.
Its production base in Guangzhou city, China will be put into operation by the end of 2019. The annual production for the first phase is expected to be 100,000 units.