After the latest participation in a private equity fund in Shanghai, Ningde era has invested in six private equity funds in the first eight months of this year.
This is another series of layout of Ningde in the financial sector after it joined Tianjin Binhai Industrial Fund Management Co., Ltd. on August 1 last year and became one of its 16 shareholders, and in December contributed 900 million yuan to become a new shareholder of China-France Life Insurance. Through this series of rapid operations, Ningde era in addition to industrial investment, has greatly stepped into the field of financial investment.
One a month, high-speed investment in private equity funds.
According to Tianyan check, Shanghai Guoze Green Technology Manufacturing Private Investment Fund Partnership (limited partnership) changed on Sept. 17, and Ningde Times New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (300750.SZ) (hereinafter referred to as "Ningde Times") became one of its shareholders. Prior to this, on August 26, Ningde Times signed the "Shanghai Guoze Green Technology Manufacturing Private Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) Limited Partnership Agreement" with partners such as Shanghai Guoze Investment Management Co., Ltd. the amount of capital contribution is 100 million yuan, holding 11.35% of the fund.
It is reported that Shanghai Guoze Investment Management Co., Ltd. is a leading equity investment platform focusing on investment opportunities brought about by China's technological innovation. Ningde Times said that the purpose of this investment is mainly to make use of the advantages of professional investment institutions to cooperate with the company to further improve the layout of the new energy industry.
Prior to this, Ningde era has participated in investing in at least five private equity funds. On February 10th, Ningde Times and Ningbo Meishan bonded Port area Mengding Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ningbo winning"), subscribed 548 million yuan and 1 million yuan respectively to participate in the establishment of Fujian era Mindong Mindong new energy industry equity investment partnership (limited partnership). Among them, the proportion of funds held in Ningde era was 21.96%.
Ningbo Jinding is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ningde era. This fund is intended to invest in the distribution of lithium-ion batteries and materials, intelligent manufacturing, energy storage, smart driving, renewable energy and other upstream and downstream related industries and extended ecological fields. Qi Hengxu on GP is the related investment platform of SAIC, and SAIC is not only a customer of Ningde era, but also one of the investors of Ningde era in 2020.
Two months later, in April this year, Ningde era once again joined Ningbo to set up Yibin Chendao New Energy Industry Equity Investment Partnership (limited partnership). The total contribution of the fund is 3.401 billion yuan, and the investment areas include battery raw materials, power battery system solutions, power battery material recovery and so on. This time GP Morning Road Capital, as early as 2018, has cooperated with Ningde Times to establish Yibin Tianyi Lithium Industry Science and Technology Co., Ltd. to invest in the construction of battery-grade lithium hydroxide production line.
Then May and June. First, on May 24, Ningde Times participated in the investment of Boyu Phase IV (Xiamen) equity investment partnership (limited partnership), with a subscription of 300 million yuan. The subscription ratio is 7.1%, and the areas covered this time have been extended to consumer goods and retail, financial services, health care, as well as science and technology, media, business services and so on. Then, on June 25, he participated in investing in Shandong Green Development Equity Investment Fund Partnership (limited partnership), with a capital contribution of 100 million yuan. The two GP are Boyu Capital and CICC Capital, both of which are pre-IPO investors in the Ningde era.
Then on July 27, Ningde Times subscribed 300 million yuan with Beijing Hillhouse Yuqing Investment Management Co., Ltd. to establish a Beijing Hillhouse Yurun equity investment fund partnership (limited partnership). The maximum size of the fund raised is 3.5 billion yuan, and it is intended to invest in cutting-edge technology, chips, semiconductors, solar energy, batteries, smart driving, AI technology, intelligent terminals and other science and technology industries. Gao Yuren participated in the Ningde era with 10.6 billion yuan in July 2020. Ningde time chose Hillhouse Yurun as GP, not only because Gao Xue Yurun is a well-known PE, with the leading management scale in China, but also because of its achievements in the track of hard technology, throwing out 100 VC projects a year, 80 of which are hard technology.
From the first five investments, we can see that there are four private equity funds closely related to battery materials and new energy industry. The GP chosen is also an "old friend" who has worked with him before.
Vertical + horizontal investment layout
A reporter from the Venture Capital Daily saw from Tianyan that at present, there are 80 foreign investment enterprises in the Ningde era, and 29 have invested this year alone. These 80 enterprises are mainly distributed in two major areas: one is around their own industrial strategies, the vertical layout of battery raw materials and other extended industrial chains; the first is the emerging industries that are strongly supported and encouraged by horizontal national policies.
Ningde era was founded in December 2011 with a registered capital of 2.3 billion yuan. The main business is divided into four parts: power battery system, lithium battery materials, energy storage system and other businesses.
At present, the first echelon of domestic power lithium battery industry is Ningde era and BYD. Compared with Ningde era, BYD only works in the bottom end of lithium iron phosphate battery market because it has to take care of automobile manufacturing, while in Ningde era, in addition to lithium iron phosphate battery, it is also involved in the R & D and production of high-end battery ternary lithium. As a result, it caught up with the tuyere where the national policy subsidized high-life power batteries, especially ternary lithium batteries, in 2016. The Ningde era quickly won orders for almost the entire automobile industry. It is reported that last year, the market share of the lithium battery industry reached 48.06% in Ningde era, while BYD ranked second at 14.91%.
On June 11, 2018, Ningde Times was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. In May this year, the market capitalization of Ningde era exceeded 1 trillion yuan for the first time, surpassing the Agricultural Bank of China and ranking fifth. At present, there are only six companies with a market capitalization of more than one trillion yuan.
The second half of 2020 is the explosive period of the new energy vehicle industry, the huge demand for lithium resources, resulting in the price of lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide has been rising, which is a great cost pressure for battery manufacturers. The Ningde era is speeding up the research on sodium batteries, seeking new breakthroughs to avoid sharp fluctuations in the prices of major raw materials upstream. On the one hand, in the investment layout, accelerate into the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain.
In the upstream, increase the investment in lithium, zinc and nickel resources, take a stake in Tianqi Lithium Industry holding 15%; 44 million yuan invested in Canadian Neo Lithium Lithium Company, with a shareholding of 8%, making it the third largest shareholder of the company. In the middle reaches, the links involved in the investment include: battery positive and negative electrodes, electrolytes, lithium equipment, power batteries and so on. Downstream investment areas are: energy storage projects, power battery recycling, new energy projects and so on.
Ningde era also raised funds through fixed increase many times, and directly invested in capacity expansion. On August 12 this year, Ningde Times announced that it plans to raise no more than 58.2 billion yuan in non-public offerings to raise funds for lithium-ion battery-related capacity construction and other five projects. Among them, the Fuding era lithium-ion battery production base project plans to raise 15.2 billion yuan, and the first phase of Guangdong Ruiqing era lithium-ion battery production project plans to raise 11.7 billion yuan. Prior to this, Ningde era has made a total of three private offerings. On July 18 last year, Ningde Times private offering raised 19.618 billion yuan, of which Hillhouse Capital contributed about 10 billion.
In addition to the vertical layout of the industrial chain, horizontally, the Ningde era is to enter the new energy industry. According to the 14th five-year Plan for the Development of Circular economy, China will vigorously promote the realization of carbon peak and carbon neutralization. Among them, the recycling of waste power batteries is one of the key actions.
On July 7, 2021, Ningde Times wholly established two new companies, Chengdu Jintang Times New material Technology Co., Ltd and Xiamen Times New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. The two companies are involved in new material technology and new energy technology. On July 15, Ningde Times signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Tencent Cloud to jointly build "Ningde era-Tencent Cloud AI Joint Innovation Base" to build systematic full-process AI productivity. The main projects are carbon peak, carbon neutral and sustainable development.
According to the current development trend of the industry, the growth rate of the new energy vehicle industry plays a vital role in the future development of the power battery industry. From 2016 to the end of 2020, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles rose from 1% to nearly 6%, and reached 10.79% in the first eight months of 2021. The Ningde era has also stepped up its cooperation with Tesla. On June 25, 2021, Ningde Times signed an agreement with Tesla that Ningde Times will supply Tesla with lithium-ion power battery products from January 2022 to December 2025.
