Zhenghai Capital s green equity investment is the unification of social value and financial value

Mondo Finance Updated on 2024-03-01

**: 21st Century Business Herald.

21st Century Business Herald 21 Finance APP Yan Qi

21st Century Business Herald reporter Yan Qi reported.

The green and low-carbon sustainable development model has become a global consensus. With China's "dual carbon" goal proposed at the United Nations General Assembly in 2020, China's economic and social transformation is moving forward rapidly. In this wave of transformation, it will be accompanied by a disruptive energy revolution and technological revolution, which will inevitably give birth to new business forms and technological innovations.

As a new round of technological revolution, its development is also inseparable from the support of capital, and a number of innovative green equity investment opportunities in China are brewing. Equity investment in green industries is a major opportunity and a new challenge for investment institutions participating in each market.

Shanghai Zhenghai Asset Management***hereinafter referred to as "Zhenghai Capital") and its partner Dr. Hua Hua have laid out the upstream and downstream of the green industrial chain such as photovoltaics, lithium batteries, new energy vehicles, semiconductors, carbon neutral services, and degradable materials in accordance with the low-carbon technology development roadmap to help the development of green enterprises, and continue to practice based on their own understanding of green investment. Green equity investment projects in new materials and new energy, including Suzhou Kema, Dalian Kelide, Dunyuan Juxin, Chengdu Ultrapure, Jiangsu Zhengli New Energy, etc., are all led and participated by Huahua.

The core competency of investment is a clear understanding of the industry.

"Green investment is not only a national strategy, but also the future of sustainable industrial development. The investment research capabilities and post-investment empowerment are all based on the clear understanding of the industry. ”

Compared with the simple financial background of most investors in the industry, Hua Hua has a very rich and diverse career experience before entering the equity investment industry. In his nearly 20-year career, he has worked for three multinational companies, Eastman Kodak, Royal Philips and Honeywell, and has been engaged in R&D management, production and operation, health, safety and environment (HSE), sustainable development and other management practices, and has served as an engineer, department manager, and head of R&D center operations.

It is the experience of these industrial companies with diversified business portfolios and perfect management systems that has broadened Huahua's vision and laid a solid industrial foundation for it to enter the field of equity investment.

In 2018, Hua Hua joined Zhenghai Capital and gradually grew from the investment director to the company's partner, so as to be more fully responsible for the company's investment business, including all end-to-end aspects of investment** fundraising, investment, management, and withdrawal. From industry to investment, the career span is large, but Hua Hua's change is not impulsive, but based on his keen insight into industry trends.

During her Ph.D. studies, she focused on the field of energy economics and did a lot of research work in related industries, digging deep into the intrinsic connection between energy and economy and sustainable development.

During his tenure at Philips, he worked at Philips as the person in charge of the establishment and improvement of the sustainability management system of various business entities and factories in Philips China, which was unanimously recognized by the company and certification bodies, and these professional experiences have deeply rooted the concept of green and low-carbon.

During her tenure at Honeywell, as the head of operations of the China R&D center, Hua Hua was very keenly aware of the changes in China's industry in the process of sorting out the subdivided industries. "The development of green and environmental protection related industries in China is very fast", this is the most intuitive feeling of the changes in China's industry at that time. "On the one hand, for many industries, the traditional low-price competition is only a dead end; On the other hand, from the perspective of the whole cycle of a product, green products can reduce costs more. ”

Behind this change, with the increasingly serious global environmental problems, low-carbon and sustainable development have gradually become the focus of attention of countries and enterprises. As an emerging investment method, green equity investment has huge market potential and development space. Seeing this opportunity, Hua Hua was determined to make a big difference in this field.

Green equity investment is the unification of social value and financial value.

Founded in 2008, Zhenghai Capital focused on investing in the upstream of the traditional automotive industry chain. At that time, the domestic automobile industry chain as a whole was already mature, and it was difficult for the previous investment direction to continue in the future. If you still dig deep in the traditional automobile industry chain, there are not many opportunities for investment institutions. Hua Hua believes that "instead of this, it is better to reinvent the wheel and set green equity investment as the main investment direction in the future." ”

From the perspective of emission reduction, the areas covered by green industries can be divided into three main categories. The first is the electrification of terminals, including lithium-ion batteries and vehicle electrification. The second is the cleaner use of electricity, such as wind power, photovoltaics, energy storage, hydrogen energy, etc. The third is the emission reduction of non-electricity, such as the use of new materials, so as to reduce the carbon and "three wastes" emissions of the whole life cycle.

Hua Hua said, "In terms of green equity investment strategy, Zhenghai Capital has a certain differentiation in the industry. "Generally speaking, ESG, or sustainable investment strategies, is more often negative screening, that is, if a company's ESG is not doing well, it is not included in the portfolio. Zhenghai Capital has made a positive integration strategy, focusing on these new growth drivers in the transition society, and investing in projects that are green enterprises that are conducive to energy conservation and emission reduction. "We believe that such companies will be more sustainable and more stable in the future. He added.

Judging from the specific investment practice of Zhenghai Capital, the whole industrial chain layout has been carried out in the upstream, midstream and downstream of the green industrial chain. For example, in the upstream, Zhenghai Capital has invested in Jiayue New Energy, a photovoltaic cell company, and has successfully exited through mergers and acquisitions of listed companies; In the midstream, MEMSIC, an environmentally friendly wood-plastic profile company laid out by Zhenghai Capital, has been approved for IPO issuance; The new ceramic material company Kema Technology GEM has passed the meeting; The valuation of the new round of financing of lithium battery company Zhengli New Energy has been substantially **; In the downstream, CN Technology, a resource utilization company invested by Zhenghai Capital, is actively preparing to apply for an IPO again.

The reason why such achievements can be achieved is that in Hua Hua's view, green equity investment pursues the unity of social value and financial value, and it is very important to pursue financial value "timing". Especially for the 20 years of industrial experience in the industry, Hua Hua personally felt that investment should be in line with the development law of the industry itself.

Just like Gartner's technology curve, a new technology goes through a series of stages of birth, high expectations, froth disillusionment, slow ramp-up, and steady growth. He said, "As a pragmatic investment institution, Zhenghai Capital will only deploy when the development of a technology industry is relatively mature, that is, it is in the bubble stage and can generate real commercial value." ”

Take the OLED screen that we can see everywhere as an example, because of its wide viewing angle, high brightness, bright colors and other advantages, it has been widely used in mobile phones, TVs and many other digital fields. But what many people don't know is that the invention of OLED came from Kodak, where Hua Hua once worked. As early as 1979, Dr. Deng Qingyun, a Chinese scientist engaged in scientific research at Kodak, began the research of OLED, and Dr. Deng is also known as the father of OLED.

From technological invention to large-scale mature application, OLED has experienced nearly 40 years of development. According to research data from market analyst agency Precedence Research, the global OLED market size will reach 384 in 2022400 million US dollars, and the market size is expected to rise to 2596 by 2032$700 million. Today, in the ranks of the global OLED panel giants, there are Samsung, LG, Sony and BOE, which is the birthplace of technology, Kodak has long been transformed to focus on the digital printing industry.

People tend to overestimate the short-term impact of a new technology and underestimate the long-term impact of a new technology," Hua Hua lamented.

Author: Yan Qi Editor: Lin Kun).

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