The board of directors of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) has approved a plan to sell up to 58.2 billion yuan ($ 8.9 billion) of shares to expand the manufacturing capacity of the battery manufacturing giant in a context of growing competition.
CATL, headquartered in Ningde in Fujian, is the world‘s largest manufacturer of batteries for electric vehicles (supplier of the main electric car manufacturers, including of course Tesla, but also the German companies Vw and Bmw, Daimler in trucks). It has more than tenfolded its revenues since 2015, to $ 7.7 billion in 2020. It will sell China-listed shares to up to 35 investors, according to filings filed Thursday. The proceeds will be used specifically for lithium-ion battery projects, research of new energy and to replenish liquidity.
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Shares in CATL were up 3.7% on Friday and 24% from the start of the year. According to data from SNE Research, CATL controls 31.2% of the world market for batteries for electric vehicles, ahead of LG Energy Solution (23.1%), which only adding the other two Koreans Samsung and SK (5.3% and 5.1%) slightly exceeds the Chinese competitor. Japan’s Panasonic (14.7%) and the Chinese automotive and battery giant BYD (6.9%) follow. CATL founder Zeng Yuqun last month surpassed Jack Ma on the wealth rankings, a symbolic moment in the rise of China’s environmental billionaires.
A few weeks ago CATL presented its new sodium batteries, which could guarantee lower costs than lithium-based ones, whose prices have skyrocketed. Sodium ions would not guarantee the same duration and energy density (about half that of lithium) of the battery. However, CATL would like to launch the new batteries on the market by 2023.