Source: Beijing Commercial Daily
Original title: Can the Ningde era still support trillions of market value?
The market value breaks one trillion, and the head Zeng Yuqun’s worth is crazyMa Yun, Li Ka-shing, “Battery Mao” Ningde era is still on the road. On the evening of August 25, CATL released its financial report showing that revenue and net profit doubled in the first half of this year. At the same time, the balance of monetary funds reached 74.686 billion yuan, accounting for 35.94% of the company’s total assets. On August 26, the stock price of CATL rose more than 4% at the opening.
It is worth noting that in addition to the major revenue players, the power battery system business is still the power battery system business. In the first half of this year, the revenue of the energy storage system business of the Ningde era increased by 7 times, and the gross profit rate showed a double-digit growth. It has gradually become a profit contributor of the Ningde era. However, while the dazzling semi-annual report was announced, Hillhouse Capital and other five shareholders reduced their holdings and cashed out, among which Hillhouse Capital reduced their holdings by nearly 8 million shares.
Upper position in the energy storage sector
The financial report shows that in the first half of this year, CATL’s revenue was 44.07 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 134%; net profit reached 4.48 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 131.5%; net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was 3.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 184.64%. Power battery systems, energy storage systems, and lithium battery materials have become the three major sectors supporting the doubling of revenue in the Ningde era. Among them, in the first half of this year, driven by the market demand for new energy vehicles, the sales revenue of the power battery system of CATL was 30.45 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 125.94%, accounting for 70% of the total revenue of CATL.
However, with the overall revenue growth, the operating costs of the CATL have also risen. The financial report shows that the operating cost of power battery systems increased by 136.71% year-on-year, higher than the 125.94% revenue increase. At the same time, the gross profit margin was 23%, a year-on-year decrease of 3.5%, making it the only one of the three major business sectors with a decline in gross profit margin. Industry insiders believe that due to factors such as rising prices of raw materials, CATL’s operating costs have risen in the first half of the year, and the power battery system business has inhibited CATL’s ability to “make money”.
Despite the decline in the gross profit margin of power battery systems, the growth of the energy storage sector has become a new driving force in the Ningde era. The financial report shows that in the first half of the year, CATL’s energy storage system revenue was 4.69 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 727.36%; gross profit margin increased by 12% year-on-year to 36.6%, making it the sector with the highest gross profit margin among the three major sectors. The relevant person in charge of CATL said that during the reporting period, with the growth of demand for energy storage on the power generation side and grid side of the global market, CATL shipped multiple 100-megawatt-hour projects, achieving a 7-fold increase in energy storage system sales revenue. CATL has established long-term strategic partnerships with many customers and carried out comprehensive and in-depth cooperation.
In terms of energy storage, CATL has participated in a number of energy storage projects. This year, the Huadian Datong 300MW/600MWh energy storage project invested and constructed by CATL and State Grid Comprehensive Energy Joint Venture State Grid Times and Huadian Company is expected to be put into operation at the end of December. “The landing of energy storage projects has also led to the rapid development of the Ningde era in the field of energy storage.” Yan Jinghui, a member of the Expert Committee of the China Automobile Dealers Association, said that at present, the state attaches great importance to the energy storage industry and has issued relevant policy documents to coordinate the development of special energy storage plans to promote power sources. The construction of side energy storage projects and the rationalized layout of grid side energy storage support the diversified development of user-side energy storage. The Ningde era also focused on this field and accelerated its deployment.
Accelerate capacity expansion
In the rush mode, the peaking of production capacity has become a problem that needs to be solved in the Ningde era.
The financial report shows that as of the end of June this year, the balance of currency and funds of CATL was 74.686 billion yuan, accounting for 35.94% of the company’s total assets; net assets attributable to shareholders of listed companies were 68.758 billion yuan.
However, with more than 70 billion yuan in cash flow, CATL is still preparing to continue financing. On August 12, CATL announced that it intends to raise no more than 58.2 billion yuan through a non-public offering of shares and invest in the field of lithium batteries and supplement liquidity.
It is worth noting that the CATL is currently experiencing a peak in production capacity. The financial report shows that in the first half of this year, CATL’s power battery and energy storage system capacity was 65.45Gwh, the capacity utilization rate was as high as 92.2%, and the output was 60.34Gwh. Since 2018, CATL has more than 10 battery projects under construction.
In addition, in August this year, CATL successively reached strategic cooperation agreements with Jiangxi Provincial Government, Shanghai Municipal Government, and Sichuan Development. In addition to expanding domestic production capacity, CATL also started production capacity construction in Europe in 2019, with its first overseas factory located in Erfurt, Thuringia, Germany.
The financial report shows that due to the increase in cash expenditures for capacity investment and construction, the net cash flow generated by the investment activities of the Ningde Times this year was -25.127 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 893.99%. According to the financial report, CATL’s production capacity under construction is 92.5Gwh. Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Passenger Car Market Information Joint Council, said that in recent years, CATL has been expanding its “friend circle” and signed order agreements with many car companies. The increase in demand for new energy vehicles has also tightened the production capacity of CATL and has accelerated It is imperative to expand production capacity.
5 Shareholders reduced their holdings by more than 45 million shares
The performance of the semi-annual report was outstanding, but five shareholders including Hillhouse Capital chose to “save the bag for safety” in the second quarter and reduce their holdings to cash out.
Among them, Hillhouse Capital Management Co., Ltd.-China Value Fund (Exchange) reduced its holdings of 7.989 million shares, and its shareholding ratio fell from 2.27% to 1.92%. In addition, Shenzhen Zhaoyin No. 3 Equity Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) reduced its holdings by 11.452 million shares, Hubei Changjiang CMB Power Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) reduced its holdings by 10.63 million shares, and Tibet Hongshang Capital Investment Co., Ltd. reduced its holdings by 1327. Ten thousand shares, Borui Ronghe Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership) in Meishan Bonded Port Zone, Ningbo reduced its holdings by 1.754 million shares. According to statistics, calculated on the basis of the lowest stock price of Ningde Times of 309.76 yuan in the second quarter, Hillhouse Capital will cash out at least 2.5 billion yuan, and if calculated at the highest valuation, it will cash out 4 billion yuan.
While the five shareholders reduced their holdings, there were also funds to continue buying. The financial report showed that the shareholding ratio of Hong Kong Securities Clearing Company Limited reached 6.65% at the end of the second quarter, a slight increase from the 6.53% at the end of the first quarter. It is reported that in the first half of this year, the northbound capital increased its holdings of approximately 24.74 million shares of Ningde Times. Regarding the impact of the shareholder reduction on Ningde Times, a reporter from Beijing Commercial Daily contacted the relevant person in charge of Ningde Times, but as of press time, no response has been received.
The reduction of Ningde Times shareholders’ holdings is only a microcosm of new energy vehicle concept stocks. Since the beginning of this year, many listed companies related to the auto industry have seen shareholder reductions, mostly concentrated in auto industry listed companies related to new energy. According to incomplete statistics, at least 12 Chinese auto industry listed companies have been cashed out by shareholders, and the accumulated cash amount far exceeds 10 billion yuan.
Among the 12 companies, BYD’s shareholders have the highest amount of cash, with a cumulative cash out of over 5 billion yuan this year. At the same time, new energy vehicle-related stocks such as Pioneer Intelligence, Tianqi Lithium and BAIC Blue Valley have all become targets for major shareholders to reduce their holdings. Xindao Investment reduced its holdings and cashed in the amount of pilot intelligence as high as 2.6 billion yuan. Tianqi Lithium, a supplier of lithium battery raw materials, has been cashed out by shareholders of 1.8 billion yuan this year.
The industry believes that it is normal for shareholders to reduce or increase their holdings in the stock market. Under the policy and market demand, new energy vehicles have been highly sought after in recent years, and capital has also entered new energy vehicles and related industries. However, as more and more companies enter this field, the enthusiasm for capital has also cooled. At this time, the reduction of shareholders’ holdings by many companies is also a manifestation of the return of the capital market to rationality.Beijing Commercial Daily reporter Liu Yang Liu Xiaomeng
.