**: Straight-through IPO;Text: Shao Yangang
After Sinohytec, the "second share of hydrogen fuel cell" came.
On December 5, Synergy Hydrogen Energy, a developer of domestic hydrogen fuel cell stacks, officially landed in Hong Kong. It is reported that the issue price per share of Synergy Hydrogen Energy is 19HK$66, 79.52 million shares issued, and the net proceeds from the global offering are estimated to be approximately 14HK$5.6 billion. On the first day of listing, the opening price of Synergy Hydrogen Energy was 16HK$5 shares, with the largest intraday decline of 26%. As of the lunch break, Synergy Hydrogen Energy's share price was 15HK$94 shares, with a total market capitalization of about 82HK$5.8 billion.
It is understood that Synergy Hydrogen Energy submitted listing applications to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange twice in November 2022 and May 2023 respectively. At the same time as the final hearing of Synergy Hydrogen Energy's second submission, the IPO of Zhizhen Co., Ltd. and the Science and Technology Innovation Board of Jie Hydrogen Technology, which were queuing up for IPO at the same time, are currently in the suspension stage, and Guofu Hydrogen Energy has terminated the listing process of the Science and Technology Innovation Board and resumed counseling and filing. In addition, the previous IPO of REFIRE on the Science and Technology Innovation Board also ended in withdrawal.
At present, in addition to Synergy Hydrogen Energy, there is only one hydrogen energy-related company in the capital market. After Sinohytec landed in Hong Kong on January 2 this year, its stock price has exceeded one percent.
Synergy Hydrogen Energy was founded in 2015, but in just two years, it ranked first in China's hydrogen fuel cell stack shipment list, and "dominated" the list for six consecutive years from 2017 to 2022. However, the market share of the No. 1 sales volume for six consecutive years did not help Synergy Hydrogen Energy achieve profitability, and until the listing, Synergy Hydrogen Energy was in a state of loss.
China's hydrogen fuel cell industry started late, but with the support of hydrogen energy at the national level, Synergy Hydrogen Energy has received continuous attention from capital in the primary market with its three-wheel drive strategy of "equipment localization, production scale and production integration". From November 2016 to September 2022, there were 10 rounds of external investment. Among them, Synergy Hydrogen Energy has 7 rounds of financing after 2020.
Before the IPO, the valuation of Synergy Hydrogen Energy had reached the scale of a unicorn, and Ma Dongsheng, as the founder, went south to Guangdong in 2015 to found Synergy Hydrogen Energy and received local industry support. In 2022, Ma Dongsheng resigned as chairman due to health and other reasons, and handed over the baton to his partners.
Today, Synergy Hydrogen Energy has become the second listed hydrogen fuel cell company in China, and Synergy Hydrogen Energy has also started a new development process.
The establishment of Synergy Hydrogen Energy is inseparable from Ma Dongsheng.
Ma Dongsheng was the first college student after the resumption of the college entrance examination, but his later major was not related to today's hydrogen energy, and after graduation, he also worked in the steel industry for nearly 20 years, and experienced a hundred battles in the field of production and operation management. It wasn't until the early twentieth century that Ma Dongsheng came into contact with hydrogen energy.
However, at that time, the domestic hydrogen energy industry started late, the technology was backward, and the starting point for industrialization was very low, let alone commercialization.
In 2013, Ma Dongsheng established Blue Sky Hydrogen Energy in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, and began the first industrialization attempt, and the technology was Ballard Power Company of Canada. In the course of negotiations with Ballard, Ma Dongsheng keenly seized the opportunity of Ballard's financial trouble, obtained an exclusive license to Ballard's technology, and paid $17 million.
Although there is technical cooperation with foreign giants, what Ma Dongsheng has obtained is the technology of the other party's backward generation. In this way, with backward technology and no orders, Ma Dongsheng's first hydrogen energy venture ended in failure.
Fortunately, Ma Dongsheng did not give up, he learned the experience of exchanging the market for technology from the failure, and clearly realized that it was necessary to find the market first before there was a bargaining chip for changing technology.
In 2015, Ma Dongsheng went south to Guangdong, when the Guangdong counterpart assistance plan was introduced, and Foshan and Yunfu decided to focus on the development of the hydrogen energy industry, which coincided with Ma Dongsheng's idea.
In May 2015, Ma Dongsheng and Foshan Automobile Transport jointly invested in the establishment of Guangdong Hongyun Hydrogen Energy Technology Co., Ltd. In June, Guangdong Hongyun Hydrogen Energy joined hands with Guangdong Foshan (Yunfu) Industrial Transfer Industrial Park Investment and Development to jointly invest in the establishment of Guangdong Synergy Hydrogen Energy Technology, the predecessor of Synergy Hydrogen Energy.
Soon after the establishment of Synergy Hydrogen Energy, it received an order for 300 hydrogen vehicles from the local government. With the support of this large order, Ma Dongsheng negotiated with Ballard again to obtain Ballard's most advanced hydrogen battery stack technology and technical support for the construction of Ballard's 20,000-unit production line.
At that time, the localization of many advanced technologies was still the path of introduction, digestion and independent research and development. Ma Dongsheng had a similar idea. After receiving technical support, Ma Dongsheng began the process of independent research and development.
It is reported that since 2016, Synergy Hydrogen Energy has begun to tackle technical bottlenecks and carry out independent development. Also in this year, a group of high-level hydrogen fuel cell experts at home and abroad, such as Yan Xiqiang, the leader of stack technology research and development, and Liu Zhixiang, the leader of system technology research and development, officially joined Synergy Hydrogen Energy. Among them, Liu Zhixiang has successfully developed China's first fuel cell locomotive and the world's first commercial fuel cell supercapacitor hybrid tram as the technical leader.
Synergy Hydrogen Energy has also become a pioneer of domestic hydrogen energy fuel cells, and it is also very hot in the capital market. According to the prospectus, Synergy Hydrogen Energy has undergone a total of 10 rounds of external investment from November 2016 to September 2022. Among them, Synergy Hydrogen Energy has 7 rounds of financing after 2020.
It is reported that from 2020 to the IPO, Synergy Hydrogen Energy has successively received investment from Meijin Energy, CRRC Green Pulse, Huayi Investment, Chengxin Venture Capital, Yuecai Venture Capital, Hongsheng Fengtai, Guozhong Capital, Qingdao Urban Investment Group, CRRC, Zhuoneng Investment, Hongta Venture Capital, Sunfly Technology, China Merchants Dinghong and other capitals, with a cumulative investment of more than 3 billion yuan.
Along with the financing process, the valuation of Synergy Hydrogen Energy has also risen. In the last round of financing, Jiaxing Hydrogen Port injected 54.6 billion yuan, after this round of financing, the post-investment valuation of Synergy Hydrogen Energy reached 74800 million yuan.
Synergy Hydrogen Energy had reached the scale of a unicorn before the IPO, and Ma Dongsheng, as the founder, has no longer participated in the day-to-day management of the company since 2018, and has handed over the company to Chen Xiaomin, the chairman of Foshan Automobile Transport, a partner. Chen Xiaomin became the actual controller of Synergy Hydrogen Energy.
It is reported that Ma Dongsheng will hold 20% and 30% of the shares of Hongyun Hydrogen Energy in December 2020 and December 2021 for free and 6379 respectivelyThe ** of 960,000 yuan was transferred to Huahui Technology (the main management team of Synergy Hydrogen Energy, the shareholding platform of Chen Xiaomin, Yang Zeyun, Liu Zhixiang and Yan Xiqiang). According to the prospectus, the reason for Ma Dongsheng's withdrawal was his intention to withdraw due to age, deterioration of health and the shift in business focus.
Ma Dongsheng handed over the chairmanship to Chen Xiaomin in 2021 after the equity transfer. According to the shareholding structure of Synergy Hydrogen Energy, as of the listing date, the largest shareholder of Synergy Hydrogen Energy is still Hongyun Hydrogen Energy, with a shareholding ratio of 1824%, and the current chairman Chen Xiaomin is his largest individual shareholder, with a total shareholding ratio of about 157%。
However, Ma Dongsheng has not withdrawn from the hydrogen energy industry, and he is currently a shareholder of companies such as Guangdong Taiji Power, a manufacturer and distributor of fuel cell components.
Compared with the company's development history, Synergy Hydrogen Energy's business growth is worth mentioning.
Affected by the key order in 2015, the first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle developed by Synergy Hydrogen Energy was unveiled on the Yunfu demonstration bus line, all buses were loaded with Synergy Hydrogen products, and when the bus line was put into operation in 2017, Synergy Hydrogen Energy also took advantage of the trend to become the company with the most hydrogen fuel cell buses in operation.
In 2017, Synergy Hydrogen Energy's production base in Yunfu, Guangdong Province was officially put into operation, which was the world's largest hydrogen fuel cell stack production base at that time. Synergy Hydrogen Energy has also started mass production of hydrogen fuel cell stacks.
According to Frost & Sullivan, Synergy Hydrogen ranked first in terms of hydrogen fuel cell stack shipments for six consecutive years from 2017 to 2022, ranked first in terms of hydrogen fuel cell system sales value in 2022, and ranked second in 2022 in terms of hydrogen fuel cell system sales volume.
Two years after its establishment, Synergy Hydrogen Energy has become the largest manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cell stack shipments in China, and its growth rate has taken off directly.
Synergy Hydrogen Energy's main business is the R&D, production and sales of hydrogen fuel cell stacks and hydrogen fuel cell systems. After obtaining a license for Ballard's state-of-the-art technology, it began assembling, selling and servicing 9SSL fuel cell stacks in 2017. In 2020, with the company's investment in technology research and development, Synergy Hydrogen began to install hydrogen fuel cell stacks into hydrogen fuel cell systems for sales. In the second half of 2022, Synergy Hydrogen Energy began to provide more comprehensive and ready-to-use hydrogen fuel cell solutions to meet the needs of some customers.
Therefore, from 2020 to 2022, Synergy Hydrogen Energy's revenue from hydrogen fuel cell stacks increased by 1100 million yuan fell to 118770,000 yuan, accounting for 483% to 16%。In the same period, the revenue of Synergy Hydrogen Hydrogen Hydrogen Fuel Cell System increased from 1$1.3 billion to $73.2 billion yuan, accounting for 498% to 979%, of which the hydrogen fuel cell system installed in Synergy Hydrogen Energy's self-developed hydrogen fuel cell stack will reach 6300 million yuan, accounting for 84 million yuan in total revenue3%。
In 2022, Synergy Hydrogen Energy launched its self-developed Hongxin GIII hydrogen fuel cell stack and Hongtu H series hydrogen fuel cell system, which was one of the world's largest hydrogen fuel cell stacks and hydrogen fuel cell systems equipped with graphite plates at that time. As of the latest practicable date, the market share of hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles installed with Synergy hydrogen products in operation in China accounted for more than 50%.
However, on the whole, the current fuel cell industry has ushered in a period of rapid development, the market is not yet mature, and Synergy Hydrogen Energy still has to face a difficult situation to make money.
In terms of performance, the prospectus shows that in 2020, 2021, 2022 and the first five months of 2023, Synergy Hydrogen Energy's revenue will be 22.7 billion yuan, 45.7 billion yuan, 7$4.9 billion and $14.3 billion yuan, net loss was 22.1 billion yuan, 70.3 billion yuan, 2$8 billion and 08.8 billion yuan. In more than three years, Synergy Hydrogen Energy has lost nearly 1.3 billion yuan.
In addition, the average selling price of Synergy hydrogen fuel cell stacks has increased from 2,914 in 20202 yuan kw dropped to 1667 in 20225 yuan kw, the average selling price of hydrogen fuel cell systems has also dropped from 10,423 yuan kw in 2020 to 5,578 yuan in 20227 yuan kw.
A large part of the reason for the price reduction of products is the localization + scale + integration three-wheel drive strategy of Synergy Hydrogen Energy. Synergy Hydrogen produces high-performance hydrogen fuel cell stacks and hydrogen fuel cell systems at low cost, improving production efficiency and reducing the overall cost of hydrogen fuel cells. Synergy Hydrogen Energy is also one of the first hydrogen fuel cell companies in China to reduce the unit price of fuel cell stacks to less than 2,000 kW, making hydrogen energy products** more acceptable.
However, in 2021 and 2022, Synergy Hydrogen Energy's gross profit will be 12.8 billion yuan, 15.9 billion yuan, corresponding to a gross profit margin of %.
In terms of expenditure items, in 2020, 2021, 2022 and the first five months of 2023, Synergy Hydrogen Energy's R&D investment was 35.9 million yuan, 72.2 million yuan, 91.8 million yuan and 35.5 million yuan, respectively, accounting for the revenue of the same year. 3% and 248%。
However, Synergy Hydrogen's biggest expenditure item is administrative expenses. It is reported that in 2020, 2021, 2022 and the first five months of 2023, the company's administrative expenses were 1500 million yuan, 61.6 billion yuan, 1$8.1 billion and $657030,000 yuan. Among the administrative expenses from 2020 to 2022, the share-based payments received by the five highest-paid individuals were 70.78 million yuan, 1200 million yuan and 13.88 million yuan, accounting for administrative expenses respectively. 7%。
In addition, in 2020, 2021, 2022 and the first five months of 2023, the cash flow generated by Synergy Hydrogen Energy's operating activities had a net outflow of 86.63 million yuan and 5.6 million yuan, respectively6.1 billion and 26.1 billion and 40.53 billion60,000 yuan. As of the end of May 2023, Synergy Hydrogen Energy's cash and cash equivalents were 6$8.4 billion, a decrease of about $34 million from the end of 2022.
Nowadays, the hydrogen energy industry is no longer "talking about hydrogen color change", but it is an indisputable fact that the commercialization process is slow and the degree is low. After the listing of the industry leader Synergy Hydrogen Energy, what new changes can it bring to the industry?