Dongfeng said that the fund will focus on the “five modernizations”, “one vehicle” and “four networks” of the auto industry.

    On December 2, Dongfeng Company, Bank of Communications, and Wuhan Economic Development Zone government jointly issued the "Dongfeng Bank of Communications Longing for Auto Industry Equity Investment Fund" action plan. The representatives of the three parties jointly signed a contract and announced the establishment of the fund.

    Dongfeng Bank of Communications Longing Auto Industry Equity Investment Fund is the first auto industry equity investment fund established by Dongfeng Company and Bank of Communications based on the logic of the integration of industry and finance. The fund is jointly operated by Dongfeng Asset Management Co., Ltd. and Bank of Communications International Holdings Co., Ltd., and has received policy and financial support from Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone. The initial registration scale of the fund reached 1.6 billion yuan.

    Caijing.com Auto contacted Dongfeng Company for details of the fund, but the other party did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    According to the official introduction, the fund will follow the practice of private equity investment operation, in accordance with the principles of marketization and commercialization, and through the combination of industry and finance, systematically select and invest in targets that have both technical and commercial value.

    At the same time, the fund will focus on tracking the development trend of the automotive industry, focusing on the "five modernizations" (lightweight, electrified, intelligent, networked, and shared), "one vehicle", "four networks" (road network, energy network, Information network, financial network) carry out forward-looking layout. In accordance with the ideas of openness, cooperation, and cross-industry coordination, through fund investment, it will help Dongfeng Company and industrial chain enterprises to establish a new ecological chain and resource circle, and accelerate the pace of iterative innovation.

    Li Shaozhu, General Manager and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Dongfeng Company, said that the establishment of the fund is a strategic layout of Dongfeng Company for the "14th Five-Year Plan", and it is expected to further integrate Dongfeng Group’s industrial resource advantages and Bank of Communications’ financial resource advantages to accelerate the promotion of the automotive sector The "Five Modernizations" reform promotes the transformation, upgrading and high-quality development of Dongfeng Group.

    Liu Jun, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of the Bank of Communications, said that all parties will work closely together to build the Dongfeng Bank of Communications Longing Auto Industry Equity Investment Fund into a platform for innovation-driven development, accelerated capital accumulation, and modern financial development.

    Dongfeng Company is accelerating the creation of a new automobile industry ecology. Recently, the company officially launched the autonomous driving pilot project, which will establish an autonomous driving "production-study-research" ecological alliance with autonomous driving companies in the United Nations, as well as universities such as Tsinghua University and Wuhan University. The project has a total investment of 600 million yuan. From 2020 to 2022, no less than 200 autonomous vehicles will be gradually launched.

    In September of this year, Dongfeng also established the Connect and Use (Wuhan) Technology Innovation Co., Ltd. in conjunction with the well-known Silicon Valley innovation platform, Connect and Use. The new company will first enter the automotive industry, incubate and accelerate a number of technological innovation companies, and build a "combined and symbiotic new generation of automotive ecology and innovation ecological platform."