China Grand Auto to title sponsor Flying Tiger

China Grand Auto, a company that is affiliated with Xinjiang Guanghui Industry Investment Group Co., Ltd., made an announcement yesterday (September 18) that it is going to title sponsor the CBA team Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tiger Basketball Club. China Grand Auto says it aims to use this title sponsorship to increase its brand influence as CBA is gaining bigger influences and more attention in China. 

The announced title sponsorship fee is CNY30m. In addition, China Grand Auto says it will reward Flying Tiger with an additional CNY10m if the team can rank among the top 4 clubs in the 2018/2019 season, and another CNY20m if they win the league final championship for this season. China Grand Auto has set up the length of the sponsorship to be the 2018/2019 CBA season. 

China Grand Auto has been listed in the A-Share Market since 2015. By the end of 2017, they have established a national automobile sales network covering 28 provinces and cities in China and selling 57 passenger vehicle brands. Their business include vehicle sales, leasing, second-hand automobiles, maintenance of vehicles and others. 

Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tiger was set up by Xinjiang Guanghui Industry Investment Group in 1999. The team has won the 2016/2017 season CBA Championship. The famous basketball star Zhou Qi was a player at Flying Tiger before he was signed up by Houston Rockets.  

According to the business media National Business Daily, China Grand Auto disclosed in its announcement that Flying Tiger had a deficit of CNY119m in net profits and a revenue of CNY43.35m in 2017. National Business Daily also notes that it is a common phenomenon among CBA clubs to have financial losses. Nevertheless, Xinjiang Guanghui Industry Investment Group has been ranked as one of the top 500 private companies in China for several years and is recently ranked in the Fortune Global 500 list 2018. 

China Grand Auto did not sponsor Flying Tiger previously as its logo has not been displayed on the team’s website. 

Reference: National Business Daily