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10 FROM THE TOP » CARLOS ALBERTO OLIVEIRA ANDRADE April 2018 | AutoData wanted to growwith us. The original plan was to do a joint venture with us, but at one point they said ‘you have to conti- nue with your business and we have to do ours’. That’s when they decided to build their factory [the Hyundai unit in Piracicaba, SP], but at the same time they wanted to strengthen my factory as well. In this original plan CAOAwould produce the HB20 model? In theory, yes. Things were moving but, as timewent on, they did not go theway I expected. Hyundai wanted to be the third brand in the Brazilian market and they asked me how many units would be necessary for that. I answered that if CAOA reached 150 thousand/year and Hyundai 250 thousand/year we would quietly be the second or third. They said, ‘That’s what we want and that’s what we’re going to do’. I was very excited, but nothing happened in practice. Was it where Chery got into the story? Yes. We had talked before, they had come to me once because theywanted me to distribute the products from their factory [Jacareí, São Paulo], but it did not happen. I was already upset about the whole thingwith Hyundai, and they came here quite willing to negotiate, offering society. They said ‘We accept everything, if you want to send in the factory can, if you want to be major, we accept’ etc. The conversations were evolving and the subject became very serious. So I told Hyundai I’d do business with them. And howwas the reaction? It was good, it was not bad, they said ‘Alright’. At first they reasoned that with this they could take care of everything of the operation here, but as the thing went on they realized the reality, they discoveredwhat Cherywas developing... then they made a letter authorizing me to do the business, because they did not had another way out, but with various restrictions. Howwas the process of signing the con- tract with Chery? At the time I still wanted to think a little more. In October of 2016 I went to China and also scheduled a meeting in Korea with Hyundai. Chery started wanting to do business anyway, 50% - 50%. We got the presidency and they got the money, or we could trade. All executives would be chosen bymutual agreement, it was a very interesting business model with no chance of friction. In March 2017 Chery’s people came to Brazil to close the deal. But when I read the contract there were a number of things I did not agree to. I read it all and said, ‘No, I do not sign it, no’.And Chery’s people went crazy because they never leave Chi- na, they came from there and I did not sign it. There was a huge stress. They still gave in a lot at the moment, but not everything I wanted. The next day we scheduled a meeting at CAOA and they did not show up. I went to the hotel where they were and we talked. They said they understood my arguments, but that the terms should have been seen before. I said, ‘Look, I’m willing to do business with Chery but not under these conditions’, and they said, ‘If we do not do business now, we will never do it again’. Then I just said, ‘Then we will never do it, that’s the end of it’. What bothered you on the terms of that contract? I wanted to strengthen my factory in An- napolis with products, and at the same “I read the contract in depth and said ‘No I do not sign it, no’. Chery’s people went crazy because they never leave China and they came from there to do business.”