On March 23, Geely Automobile Holdings Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Geely Automobile") (0175. HK) released its 2021 financial report.
In 2021, listed companies achieved revenue of RMB101.6 billion, an increase of 10.3% year-on-year; profit attributable to shareholders net of share payments of RMB6.06 billion, an increase of 9.4% year-on-year; profit attributable to shareholders of RMB4.85 billion and net profit of RMB4.35 billion.
Cash flow management was robust, with total cash reaching RMB28 billion, a record high, and net cash reaching RMB20.8 billion. As of press time, Geely Automobile's stock price has risen for two consecutive days, with the highest increase of more than 6%.
It is worth mentioning that Geely Automobile said that licensing revenue has become a new profit growth point for the company, and technology output has become an important direction for future profit sources. In 2021, Geely Automotive's other revenues, such as technical services and licensing profits, continued to grow, up 245.3% year-on-year.
In the face of the complex and changeable global economic situation, Geely Automobile has always practiced the high-quality development strategy, and in line with the tide of profound changes in the global automotive industry, it has planned a layout, seized the domestic and foreign dual-cycle markets, and opened the road to innovation-driven transformation of the brand upwards.
In October 2021, the "Star Sea" and "Smart Geely 2025" strategies anchored to "technology-led global automobile enterprises" were officially released, continuing to promote Geely's accelerated transformation into the era of the new four modernizations, and striving to build a full-stack self-developed ecosystem in the core technologies of new energy, automatic driving, intelligent networking, and intelligent cockpit.
Since its development, Geely has become the only automotive enterprise in China with satellite communication and positioning, high-precision maps and navigation, automotive chips to software and hardware full-stack self-development, and has continuously built the core competitiveness of future "smart cars" based on intelligent architecture, intelligent driving and intelligent cockpits.
"Technology has always been the first attribute of Geely", without technology there is no future, and the continuous evolution of talents and technology is the internal driving force of Geely's development.
R&D investment has grown again
Institutions are bullish on the long-term value of the company
It is reported that Geely Holdings is the only car company in the TOP10 of China's R&D investment in 2021, with a cumulative R&D investment of more than 140 billion yuan in the past decade, more than 20,000 design and R&D personnel, and 26,000 innovative patents.
While Geely Automobile is empowered by the value of the technology ecosystem at the holding level, it also inherits the emphasis on self-developed technology: in 2021, Geely Automobile's R&D investment totaled 5.5 billion yuan, an increase of 16.1% year-on-year, and the total R&D investment in the past five years totaled 25.6 billion, and in 2022, it will continue to increase R&D investment in new energy products.
In the hot chip field, Geely Automobile announced as early as September 2021 that it formally signed a strategic investment agreement with Egatong Technology, leading the B round of Egatong Technology to further improve its layout in the fields of Internet of Vehicles, Intelligent Interconnection, In-vehicle Systems and Chips.
At present, the first domestic 7nm vehicle-grade intelligent cockpit chip "Dragon Eagle One" tape-out developed by Yijiatong has been successful, breaking the monopoly position of international suppliers in this market and filling the gap in the field of mainland independent design of high-end intelligent cockpit platform main chips. At present, the "Dragon Eagle No. 1" has been mass-produced, and Geely's popular models will be installed one after another.
Not only that, Geely Holdings has further expanded its "circle of friends" and reached a cooperation with Waymo, a world-renowned driverless technology company, which will provide exclusive vehicles for waymo One driverless fleet and put into commercial operation in the United States.
Guotai Junan Research Report said that the increase in the cost of stock ownership expenses and research and development expenditures is crucial to the company's medium- and long-term value creation, and it is optimistic about the company's prospects.
Accelerate the electrification process
Aim for a new track
Since the development of electric vehicles, "mileage anxiety" is an unavoidable topic, and the economic convenience of energy replenishment and replacement is the difficulty and focus of the electric vehicle industry. In addition to vigorously building private charging piles and public charging facilities, the market has recognized that power exchange is a more economical and efficient way to replenish energy.
To this end, Geely Automobile actively explores the application of the model of vehicle-electricity separation, vigorously develops the power exchange mode on the basis of intelligent transformation, and opens up the private user market.
In 2021, Geely, as one of the main drafting units of the "Safety Requirements for Electric Vehicle Replacement", participated in the formulation of national standards, line standards, group standards and other standards. At present, Geely has a comprehensive layout of the power exchange model, and will make full use of the existing technical foundation to create a market-leading charging and replacing technology platform.
Based on the exclusive power exchange architecture, Geely launched a new "power exchange travel brand" - Ruilan Automobile, focusing on the landing of power exchange products and power exchange services, officially opening up the new situation of Geely's power exchange.
At the same time, Geely takes the initiative to meet the change, leads the development with innovation, continues to consolidate the core technical capabilities, creates the advantages of the industrial chain, actively promotes the landing of new energy technologies such as pure electricity, super electric hybrid, alcohol-electric hybrid, and power exchange, and continues to exert efforts on multiple tracks such as large mileage PHEV, pure electricity, and power exchange.
CICC believes that "the company's increase in R&D investment in power systems, electronic and electrical architecture, intelligence and other aspects will help the company further enhance its product strength." ”