**:Hunting Cloud Selection;Text: Shao Yangang
The IPO with a valuation of 60 billion was terminated!
On December 22, according to the information on the official website of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, SVOLT Energy and its sponsor CITIC ** withdrew their application for issuance and listing. In accordance with the relevant regulations, the Shanghai Stock Exchange terminated its issuance and listing review. The largest IPO project under review on the STAR Market was terminated.
It is reported that the IPO of SVOLT was accepted by the Science and Technology Innovation Board in November 2022, during which only one round of inquiries was completed. In this IPO, SVOLT Energy issued a market value of 60 billion yuan. If there is this IPO with a valuation of 60 billion in hand, the confidence of Wei Jianjun, the richest man in Hebei, can also increase by a few points.
This super unicorn, which was originally born in a big gamble, put up a high flag for Wei Jianjun and Great Wall Motors in the new energy era. According to the data of the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, the installed volume of SVOLT in 2022 will be 610GWh, accounting for 207%, ranking seventh in the domestic market.
But SVOLT Energy is not satisfied with this, this IPO, 11.5 billion of the 15 billion planned to raise by SVOLT Energy will be used to expand production capacity. As early as December 2021, SVOLT directly announced that "the company's global production capacity planning target will be increased to 600GWh in 2025", while CATL and BYD's production capacity plans were 839GWh and 600GWh respectively during the same period.
Perhaps the pace of expansion is too crazy, or maybe Honeycomb Energy has other plans and takes the initiative to withdraw the IPO of the Science and Technology Innovation Board, focusing the attention of A-share investors, but Wei Jianjun's IPO expansion plan standing behind has also had to be suspended.
Behind the honeycomb energy is Great Wall Motors, the helmsman of Great Wall Motors is Wei Jianjun, and the birth of Honeycomb Energy also comes from Wei Jianjun's decision 11 years ago with a very high component of "betting".
In 2012, Wei Jianjun, the head of Great Wall Motors, had an insight into the huge potential of electric vehicles. Under his leadership, Great Wall Motor set up a power battery project team to carry out pre-research on power battery cells, modules, packs, BMS and other related core technologies.
At that time, there were only a few power battery manufacturers on the market, such as BYD, BAK, and Xianyang Deflection (which had been backdoor), and the progress of the domestic new energy vehicle market was slow. In 2015, Great Wall Motors plans to raise a total of 16.8 billion yuan in the field of new energy through non-public offerings, but Wei Jianjun still does not believe that new energy vehicles can pass the market verification, "Great Wall makes electric vehicles in response to the national fuel consumption limit."
However, despite his words, Wei Jianjun has not actually given up his investment in new energy. In December 2016, Great Wall Motor upgraded the power battery project team and formally established a power lithium battery related business department. In 2018, with the surging trend of electrification in the global automotive industry, Wei Jianjun decided to split the power battery business to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of Great Wall Motors.
In February 2018, SVOLT was formally established, and at the end of the same year, it acquired the patented, non-patented technology and other assets related to Great Wall Motor.
Prior to 2019, SVOLT's business model was entrusted by Great Wall Motors to carry out subsequent processing, storage and management of the battery cell modules purchased by Great Wall Motors, and to settle processing fees with Great Wall Motors according to the agreed processing cost of each battery pack.
It was not until after 2019 that SVOLT began to provide overall solutions for power batteries and began to purchase battery cells by itself, but it still mainly served Great Wall Motors. Since 2020, SVOLT has shown its R&D achievements, mass-produced power battery cells and modules, and the core of the upstream chain has become a raw material manufacturer such as lithium battery cathode materials, anode materials, separators, and electrolytes, and began to bid for Great Wall Motors together with other power battery manufacturers.
After SVOLT became independent, it also began to raise funds from the capital market. It is reported that before the sprint IPO, SVOLT has completed four rounds of financing, with a total of 209300 million yuan, investors include IDG Capital, CDH Investment, Bank of China Investment, Shenzhen Venture Capital, Advanced Manufacturing, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Industrial Coordinated Development and other well-known investment institutions, as well as Sany Heavy Industry, Xiaopeng Motors and other industrial capital. It is reported that in the last round before the IPO of SVOLT, more than 100 institutions competed.
After the last round of financing before the IPO in December 2021, SVOLT's valuation reached 46.2 billion yuan, while SVOLT had a valuation of 1.3 billion yuan after the capital increase in December 2019, and SVOLT's valuation increased by more than 35 times in two years. According to the IPO of SVOLT Energy, which intends to raise 15 billion yuan and 25% of the issuance ratio, the issuance valuation of SVOLT Energy will reach 60 billion yuan.
For Wei Jianjun, the founder of Honeycomb Energy, the birth of this super IPO will also increase his net worth. According to the "2023 Hurun Report" released by the Hurun Research Institute, Wei Jianjun and Han Xuejuan of the Great Wall are the richest people in Hebei with 120 billion yuan. In addition, the prospectus shows that Wei Jianjun is the actual controller of Honeycomb Energy, and he controls the company through Baoding Ruimao and Great Wall Holdings for a total of 4026% equity and 7681% of the voting rights. SVOLT withdrew its listing application on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and Wei Jianjun also had to temporarily lose a super IPO.
Compared with the expansion of Wei Jianjun's capital market territory, the abandonment of the IPO of Honeycomb Energy also means that the 15 billion fundraising plan has come to naught.
According to the prospectus, the IPO of Honeycomb Energy plans to raise 15 billion yuan, which is planned to be used for the construction of lithium battery projects in Changzhou, Huzhou and Suining, the construction of Wuxi R&D center, and the development of lithium batteries such as ternary high-density batteries, cobalt-free batteries, "short knife" batteries, and new batteries, as well as replenishment of working capital.
According to the fundraising plan, 11.5 billion yuan will be used to expand production capacity, and SVOLT is now keen on capacity expansion, because SVOLT has suffered from insufficient production capacity before.
SVOLT's own cell production line will achieve mass production in 2020, but during the capacity ramp-up stage, the capacity gap is relatively large, which cannot meet the needs of downstream customers. Therefore, SVOLT carries out the processing of mass production module business by the leading supplier through the method of commissioned processing. This is also the reason why SVOLT has signed third-party agreements with manufacturers in the same industry such as CATL and Funeng Technology.
According to the construction of production lines in each production base and the reasonable expected ramp-up completion time, SVOLT is expected to form a total production capacity of 35GWh in 2023, 94GWh in 2024 and 154GWh in 2025. In addition, SVOLT expects revenue of 25.9 billion yuan, 65.3 billion yuan, and 108.5 billion yuan in 2023, 2024, and 2025, respectively.
Taking 2025 as the time node, the capacity of SVOLT Energy is planned to be 600GWh, the production capacity of CATL in the same industry is planned to be 839GWh, BYD's production capacity is planned to exceed 600GWh, the production capacity of China Innovation Aviation is planned to be 500GWh, the production capacity of Guoxuan Hi-Tech is planned to be 300GWh, the production capacity of EVE is planned to be 240GWh, and the production capacity of Sunwoda is planned to be 200GWh.
However, the current capacity utilization rate of SVOLT is not high. It is reported that in 2020, 2021 and 2022, the capacity utilization rate of SVOLT Energy will be: 50% and 6044%。In this regard, SVOLT said that the company's capacity release requires a certain capacity ramp-up period, due to factors such as product replacement in some production lines, which jointly leads to a low capacity utilization rate, which affects economies of scale.
According to the statistics of SneResearch, a South Korean lithium battery market research institution, SVOLT ranked tenth and twelfth in the world in terms of installed power battery capacity in 2021 and 2022, respectivelyAccording to the statistics of the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, SVOLT ranked sixth and seventh in China in terms of power battery loading in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
The rapid growth of SVOLT Energy is undoubtedly a dark horse in the industry. However, the total investment amount of the above-mentioned fundraising projects exceeded 40 billion, and as of the first half of 2022, the balance of SVOLT Energy book currency funds was 1581.5 billion yuan, and there are short-term borrowings40.6 billion yuan, long-term borrowings of 353.9 billion yuan, which has been reduced to varying degrees from the end of 2021. Now, SVOLT has lost 15 billion in IPO, how can SVOLT achieve its goal?
SVOLT was born out of Great Wall Motors, which is also a single major customer of SVOLT. In 2020, 2020 and 2021, SVOLT Energy's sales revenue to Great Wall Motor and its subsidiaries was 81.2 billion yuan, 164.9 billion and 366.1 billion yuan, accounting for its main business income. 68% and 8637%, and the proportion in the first half of 2023 will drop to 5339%。
The issue of its independence has also been the focus of attention by the CSRC, and to this end, Wei Jianjun also issued a "Letter of Commitment on Regulating and Reducing Related-Party Transactions", so that other enterprises directly or indirectly controlled by it can minimize related-party transactions with SVOLT and its holding subsidiaries.
According to the prospectus, in 2020, 2021 and 2022, the main business income of SVOLT Energy will be 167.1 billion yuan, 423.9 billion yuan, 870 billion yuan.
In addition, SVOLT's extremely low gross profit margin has attracted much attention in the lithium battery industry. It is reported that the gross profit margins of SVOLT's main business in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 will be respectively. 23% and 457%, which is significantly lower than the average gross margin of comparable companies. 05%。In 2021 and 2022, SVOLT even had negative gross margins on some customers' products.
The capacity utilization rate is low, and the scale effect is affectedFactors such as low cost** and bargaining power all affect SVOLT's gross profit margin.
Therefore, as of the IPO, SVOLT is still losing money. According to the prospectus, from 2019 to the first half of 2022, SVOLT achieved a net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders of the parent company of 32.6 billion yuan, 70.1 billion yuan, 115.4 billion yuan, 89.7 billion yuan, as of June 30, 2022, SVOLT Energy's cumulative uncovered loss was 159.7 billion yuan.
According to the prospectus, the company has not yet made a profit and has accumulated unmade losses, mainly due to factors such as the company's high R&D investment intensity, production capacity ramp-up and raw material procurement.
It is reported that from 2019 to the first half of 2022, the net cash flow from SVOLT operating activities was 27.2 billion yuan, 14.1 billion yuan, 3500 million yuan, -2100 million yuan. In addition to waiting for the increase in business sales revenue to improve profit expectations, SVOLT still needs to rely on equity financing, debt financing and other means to obtain the required external cash flow.
Regarding the withdrawal of the IPO application of the Science and Technology Innovation Board, SVOLT said that the company comprehensively considered various factors, put the best interests of the company and the company's shareholders first, decided to withdraw the A-share application, and considered starting other financing plans, and the company's production and operation are currently normal.
It is worth noting that SVOLT has won nearly 90GWh of production capacity orders in BMW Europe this year. This also strengthened SVOLT's determination to go overseas. In terms of overseas revenue, from 2020 to 2022, SVOLT's overseas sales were 28080,000 yuan, 857230,000 yuan, 20.6 billion yuan, accounting for respectively. 37%。
According to Bloomberg, SVOLT plans to expand the number of its factories in Europe to five, and is looking for suitable locations to build factories in the eastern, northern and western parts of Europe, with the largest plant reaching an annual capacity of 20GWh. The head of SVOLT Europe said the company aims to achieve at least 50GWh of battery capacity in Europe by 2030.
Previously, Yang Hongxin, chairman and CEO of SVOLT Energy, said that at present, SVOLT Energy has a layout in Southeast Asia, Europe and other places. "The company has a large number of orders in Europe, and it is a big challenge to meet these orders, but only two factories in Thailand and Germany are not enough, we have other layouts. ”
At present, going overseas has become a trend for lithium battery manufacturers. In order to accelerate its overseas expansion, how will SVOLT choose the opportunity to impact the capital market in the future?