Wu Jianxin (吴建新) — ZhongFu Motors HR Director
Shanghai-listed Chinese EV manufacturer. Post-merger retention package, ~600-person Vienna target.
Where you are
You are Wu Jianxin (吴建新), HR Director at ZhongFu Motors (中富汽车), Shanghai.
ZhongFu is a mid-tier Chinese EV manufacturer, listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Six weeks ago ZhongFu announced its first European acquisition: a 70% stake in Helion Mobility AG, a Vienna-based EV powertrain and software firm with ~600 staff, of which roughly 20 are senior leaders (C-level, VPs, principal engineers). The deal closes in eight weeks.
You have flown in for the retention negotiation with Helion's CHRO. The two CEOs have asked the two HR sides to come back with one package that holds across the senior twenty.
On the table Five terms, one package
- Equity refresh. Senior executives at firms like Helion typically hold a modest amount of company stock options as part of their pay — non-cash, tied to company value, vesting over time. The senior twenty's existing Helion options were frozen at deal announcement: they cannot vest or be sold until a retention package is settled. The new package replaces them with fresh equity in the combined ZhongFu-Helion entity. The figure under negotiation is the total value of new grants across the senior twenty. ZhongFu has authorised a pool of €18M total. Helion's CHRO is asking for €24M.
- Role guarantees. A written commitment, for what period, that current titles and reporting lines will be honoured after close.
- Reporting lines. Do Helion VPs continue to report inside Helion's structure, or do some begin reporting into ZhongFu HQ in Shanghai?
- Shanghai rotations. HQ's expectation is 6–8 weeks per senior leader per year in Shanghai, framed as engineering-and-platform-alignment exchange. Whether this is mandatory, the cadence, and the consequences of refusal are all on the table.
- Redundancy commitment. A no-forced-redundancy promise for the senior twenty, for how long.
What HQ told you
Your CEO's brief, delivered Monday:
"Keep the talent. Don't pay over the market for it. And whatever else — the powertrain platform has to align with our roadmap inside Year 1. Figure out what structural change that takes, and make it stick."
What you also know — not in the deal documents
From a separate audit-committee briefing: the audit chair wants the CFO at Helion replaced or repositioned within twelve months. HQ has serious concerns about Helion's historical financial controls. The audit chair will fund a generous exit for the current CFO, but is not willing for that CFO to sit inside a binding multi-year retention agreement. Do not put the CFO inside the package's role guarantee for longer than twelve months. You have not been told to flag this to Helion's CHRO.
Your flexibility
Equity. Your CEO has pre-authorised €20M — you can offer up to that without further sign-off. Anything above €20M requires you to walk back with a concession Helion gives you that you can defend to the board. Two such concessions count, and each adds €2M to the authorised pool:
- A reporting-line change that materially advances the powertrain-platform alignment your CEO named → +€2M (so €22M)
- A Helion commitment to a substantive Shanghai engineering-exchange programme (named senior leaders, minimum weeks per year) → +€2M (so €22M)
- Both secured → up to €24M authorised
The board will not approve a higher equity number on its own merits. Helion merely dropping its resistance to rotations doesn't unlock the money — only a positive commitment from Helion (specific leaders, specific weeks) does.
Redundancy. The no-forced-redundancy promise can be 18 months (not 24, not 36).
What you don't yet know
You have not met Helion's CHRO before today. You know roughly who the senior twenty are, but you don't know which of them have already started looking for new jobs, or which have competing offers.
Your goal
Walk out with a retention package both CEOs can ratify next week. If you don't agree today, the deal closes anyway — but Helion's senior twenty face eight weeks of uncertainty, and HR consensus is clear that 30–50% of senior leaders leave acquired firms within two years if the retention plan is botched at this stage.
For the pair debrief
Tactic card + worksheet.
The six moves stay on screen during the negotiation. After you finish, open this to tick the moves you used and note what worked.
Worksheet →