(Yicai) Nov. 20 -- A factory belonging to bankrupt joint venture GAC Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has finally been sold after five failed auctions to Apple supplier Lens Technology for a cut-price CNY602 million (USD84.6 million).

The plant’s assets were split into two lots on JD.Com’s judicial auction platform: a land and buildings lot, with the starting bid set at CNY602 million, and an equipment lot set at CNY198 million.

Lens was the sole bidder for the land and buildings. The equipment lot was sold after 76 bids to Weizheng Construction, a Nanjing-based engineering contractor, for CNY348 million.

GAC Fiat Chrysler was set up in 2010 as a 50:50 joint venture of Guangzhou-based GAC Group and Italy’s Fiat Group, now part of Stellantis. The partnership ended in 2022 amid shareholder wrangling, and the JV subsequently entered bankruptcy and liquidation proceedings.

GAC took over its Guangzhou plant, while the Changsha factory was handed to court-appointed administrator Beijing Yingke Law Firm to be liquidated for creditor repayment.

As the Changsha plant mainly produced cars with internal combustion engines, it struggled to find a buyer amid China’s rapid pivot to electric and smart vehicles. At the first auction in July last year, the starting bid was set at CNY1.9 billion (USD267 million), over double what it finally sold for.

Founded in 2006, Lens is a major supplier of screen glass for Apple’s iPhones. In recent years, the Changsha-based company has expanded into emerging fields such as wearable devices, auto smart cockpits, and robot parts.

Net profit at Lens jumped 20 percent to CNY2.8 billion (USD393.4 million) in the nine months ended Sept. 30 from a year earlier on a 16 percent increase in revenue to CNY53.7 billion, according to its most recent earning’s report.

Editor: Tom Litting