Tianqi Lithium Industry submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to raise funds to repay SQM debts and expand lithium production capacity.

SMM January 28th: after the recent release of the 2021 performance forecast, Tianqi Lithium Industry, one of the "lithium duo", recently released a "depth bomb" again. According to its latest announcement, the company has recently submitted to the China Securities Regulatory Commission its application for an initial public offering of overseas listed foreign capital shares (H shares) and listing on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

On January 27, Tianqi Lithium Industry received the "acceptance form for Administrative license Application of China Securities Regulatory Commission" issued by China Securities Regulatory Commission. The China Securities Regulatory Commission reviewed the application materials for administrative license for this issue and listing, and considered that the application materials were complete. Decided to accept the application for administrative license.

However, Tianqi Lithium Industry also cautioned that the company's listing still needs to be approved and / or approved by relevant government agencies and regulators, such as the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which is still uncertain.

According to Tianqi Lithium's listing application submitted to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Tianqi Lithium plans to use the funds raised for SQM remaining debt repayment and lithium salt project expansion, including Australia's Quinana II and Suining Anju 20, 000 tons / year lithium carbonate capacity.

The co-sponsors of Tianqi Lithium Hong Kong IPO include Morgan Stanley, China International Capital Corporation and China Banking International.

In fact, as early as September 2021, Tianqi Lithium Industry issued an announcement that the company's board of directors agreed to issue overseas-listed foreign capital shares (H-shares) and apply for listing on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. After deducting the issuance expenses, the funds raised will be used to repay existing debts, expand production capacity and replenish working capital.

In fact, this is not the first attempt by Tianqi Lithium Industry to list H shares. As early as 2018, the company submitted H-share offering information. Although the company received the approval document issued by the China Securities Regulatory Commission in November of that year, the H-share issue of Tianqi Lithium Industry was not implemented smoothly, and the approval document finally expired after the 12-month validity period.

Considering that Ganfeng Lithium Industry, one of the "lithium duo", took the lead in realizing IPO in Hong Kong stock market as early as 2018, if Tianqi Lithium Industry goes public smoothly in Hong Kong stock market, it will mean that both A shares and two lithium battery giants will complete the listing of A shares.

It should be noted that Tianqi Lithium once took on a huge debt due to the acquisition of shares in Chile's SQM, but at the end of June 2021, IGO subsidiaries paid $1.4 billion worth of financing to Tianqi Lithium, which was used by Tianqi Lithium to pay the principal and interest arising from the syndicated merger loan for the acquisition of Chile's SQM.

After this battle, according to the results of Tianqi Lithium Industry in the third quarter of 2021, the company's asset-liability ratio has dropped to 60.59%. According to its latest performance forecast for 2021, Tianqi Lithium Industry expects a net profit of 1.8 billion-2.4 billion yuan in 2021, compared with a loss of 1.834 billion yuan last year.

As for the reasons for the substantial increase in the company's performance, Tianqi Lithium Industry said that during the reporting period, benefiting from the improvement of global new energy vehicles, lithium-ion battery manufacturers accelerated capacity expansion, downstream cathode material orders and other positive factors, sales and average prices of the company's major lithium products in 2021 were significantly higher than those in 2020. The completion of the transaction involving the introduction of strategic investor IGO Limited through capital increase and share expansion of the subsidiary confirmed 673 million yuan in debt restructuring income related to the syndicated M & A loan rollover and 609 million yuan in amortization of unrecognized financing expenses during the corresponding period; in addition, the company also expects the performance of the associated company SQM in 2021 to increase significantly compared with the same period last year, and the investment income recognized in the reporting period is significantly higher than that in 2020. "View details