Ruipu Lanjun has become the king of losses and is in trouble, and the 100 billion "nickel king" behind it is difficult to support
Recently,"Aoyama system"Lithium battery company Ruipu Lanjun Lithium Co., Ltd. *** hereinafter referred to as"Ruipu Lanjun") announced its first financial report after listing.
As an emerging lithium battery company born in Wenzhou, Ruipu Lanjun was officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 18, 2023 after only 6 years of establishment"The king of nickel in the world"Tsingshan Group and the richest man in Wenzhou, once"Demon nickel"The person of the event, Xiang Guangda, supported it.
However, in the first year of listing on the Hong Kong ** Stock Exchange, Riplandjun submitted a large pre-loss report.
On February 29, Ruipu Lanjun announced that it expects the company to record a net loss of 1.8 billion to 2 billion yuan for the full year of 2023, compared with a net loss of 4$500 million.
As a result, Rip Blue Shield surpassed Fengneng Technology's 2023 17With a net loss of 700 million yuan, it became the largest loss-making lithium battery listed company in China last year.
Ruipu Lanjun said that the main reason for the sharp increase in net loss is that the decline of the main raw materials of the lithium battery industry in 2023 will have a negative impact on the gross profit of the group, which is mainly reflected in the downward adjustment of the product with the raw material market. In addition, due to the extension of the payment cycle of some downstream customers, the amount of impairment provision for accounts receivable increased; The continuous expansion of the scale of production and operation has led to an increase in management expenses; R&D expenses for new products increased.
In fact, Rui Pu Lanjun's loss was expected. According to its prospectus, from 2020 to 2022 and the first half of 2023, Ruipu Lanjun's operating income will be 90.7 billion yuan, 210.9 billion yuan, 1464.8 billion and 65$9.5 billion; The net loss was 532790,000 yuan, 80.4 billion yuan, 45.1 billion yuan and 9200 million yuan. The total loss for three and a half years was 22$2.8 billion. In the prospectus, Ruipu Lanjun has put forward the expectation that it will continue to lose money in 2023, and at the same time, it will also achieve profitability and generate operating cash flow in 2025.
According to public information, Ruipu Lanjun was established in 2017 and is one of the two major layouts of the world's top 500 Tsingshan Group in the new energy industry. Since its establishment, Ruipu Lanjun has mainly relied on Tsingshan Group for the funds needed for capacity expansion"Blood transfusions"At present, the group has invested a total of 8 billion yuan.
Relying on the initial support and blood transfusion of Tsingshan Group, Ruipu Lanjun quickly became a unicorn in the industry. In October 2017, only two months after the company was registered, Tsingshan Group won a piece of land for Ruipu Lanjun, and the equipment entered the factory half a year later; In October 2018, the first phase of the 3GWh production line of Ruipu Lanjun achieved trial mass production in Wenzhou, and the batch delivery of lithium-ion batteries was realized in April 2019.
Ruipu Lanjun's main business includes power batteries and energy storage batteries. In terms of power batteries, the company's customers include SAIC-GM-Wuling, Leapmotor, VeriElectric, as well as a well-known Dutch automobile company, a German luxury car company and an American electric vehicle manufacturer. In the field of energy storage batteries, our customers include Sunshine Energy Storage, Gurevat, Goodway, etc. Our energy storage battery products are widely used in household and industrial commercial applications in China, the United States, Europe, Japan and other foreign markets.
Among the global lithium battery manufacturers, the market share of the installed capacity of energy storage batteries in 2022 is 88%, second only to CATL and BYD, ranking third in the world. In terms of operating performance, the prospectus shows that its total annual revenue increased from 90.7 billion yuan increased significantly to 210.9 billion yuan, which will increase to 146 in 20224.8 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 300%.
Whether it is to fill the gap or quickly establish a strong channel capability in the lithium battery industry chain, it is inseparable from the Tsingshan Group behind Rip Lanjun.
As a latecomer to the industry, Ruipu Lanjun has been making some compromises to gain the market, but the low-price strategy is also one of the important reasons for the reduction of gross profit margin and performance loss.
Since last year, lithium carbonate, which is the representative of lithium battery raw materials, has fallen to less than 100,000 yuan per ton, a year-on-year decline of 80%.
As a fast-rising second-tier battery manufacturer, there is nothing wrong with entering the market at a low price in the short term when the recognition of downstream customers is not high, but it is not a long-term solution.
The lithium-ion battery industry has a high market concentration, especially in the electric battery market. The vice president of China Innovation Hangzhou said that the concentration of the electric battery market is getting higher and higher, and only a few leading companies will be able to survive in the future. Although Rip Blue Shield will be among the top 10 in 2022, behind CATL and BYD, there is still a big gap in its market share compared to the previous two. Industry insiders**, the market concentration of the lithium battery industry will be further strengthened. Ruipu Lanjun is facing competition from strong competitors such as Honeycomb Energy and EVE Lithium Energy, and there is great uncertainty about how much incremental market share it can gain in the future.
From the perspective of R&D investment, the proportion of R&D investment in Ruipu Lanjun from 2020 to 2022 is as follows. 2% and 52%, although the proportion is not low, but the R&D expenditure in 2022 is only 76.8 billion yuan, and the R&D expenditure of Guoxuan Hi-Tech in the same period (241.6 billion yuan), there is still a big gap. The D expenditure in 2022 is the same as the R&D expenditure of Gotion Hi-Tech in the same period (24.1.6 billion yuan), there is still a big gap, and CATL (155100 million yuan) is far from it.
It is worth noting that Zhang Wutang, chairman of Shanghai Lanjun New Energy Company, and Zhong Kaifu, general manager of Shanghai Lanjun New Energy Company, which is controlled by Ruipu Lanjun, were both former employees of CATL, and they were both found to have infringed CATL's trade secrets.
In terms of liabilities, the prospectus shows that the net cash flow generated by Ruipu Lanjun's operating activities from 2020 to 2022 is 17.7 billion yuan, -195.7 billion and -22$3 billion; Interest-bearing liabilities are 28.1 billion yuan, 57.9 billion and 4.6 billion$5.1 billion; The asset-liability ratios over the years were: 5% and 409%。There is a risk that the debt will increase year by year.
More importantly, behind the support of Tsingshan Group, it is the first battle of Ripland, but Tsingshan Group's profits also fell sharply last year.
According to the data, from 2009 to 2019, Tsingshan Group's stainless steel output increased from 1 million tons to 10 million tons, and its sales increased from tens of billions of yuan to more than 200 billion yuan, becoming the world's largest producer of stainless steel and nickel metal in one fell swoop. However, in 2022, Tsingshan Group's operating income was 5471.1 billion yuan, a slight increase of only 025%；Profit from 238.6 billion yuan plummeted to 14.15.7 billion yuan, down nearly 40% year-on-year. More importantly, in 2023, due to weak demand, stainless steel** will continue to decline, and the downward trend of Tsingshan Group's performance will not decrease.
The enormous pressure on the big tree of the Tsingshan Group is crushing it. It seems that the only option is to go public as soon as possible to raise funds. Against the backdrop of unfavorable financing, only 51% of the shares will also be listed for financing, which shows the great pressure on Ruipu Lanjun and Tsingshan.