Written by / Hong Hanqi
Edited / Mao Shiyang
On the evening of April 21, CATL released its 2021 financial report. During the reporting period, in 2021, CATL achieved a total revenue of 130.356 billion yuan, an increase of 159.06% year-on-year. This is the first time that the operating income of the NINGDE era has exceeded 100 billion yuan, and the revenue scale of last year is close to the total revenue of the four years from 2017 to 2020.
In terms of earning ability, the Ningde era also showed a stronger ability to absorb gold. In 2021, the company's net profit attributable to the mother was 15.931 billion yuan, an increase of 185.34% year-on-year.
The double growth of revenue and net profit attributable to the mother is inseparable from the strong performance of the Ningde era in the power battery market. According to SNE Research statistics, in 2021, cathedale will rank first in the global power battery market with an installed capacity of 96.7GWh, with a market share of 32.6%. This is the fifth consecutive year since 2017 that the NINGDE era has ranked first.
The paradox is that the Ningde era has recently been in the secondary market, but the Ningde era has shown a tortuous trend.
On April 20, the market value of CATL fell below one trillion yuan. As of the close of trading on April 22, the non-reinstated share price of CATL was 415.34 yuan per share, and the total market value was below one trillion yuan, which was more than 600 billion yuan evaporated from the highest point.
The stock price fell more than once, and what pierced the psychological defense line of the shareholders was that the Ningde Times, which earned 15.9 billion yuan, announced after releasing its financial report: no dividends.
What's the problem?
The ningde era does not pay dividends, which is controversial
The Ningde era handed over the "strongest" performance, but the shareholders could not be happy.
This stems from an announcement by CATL on the evening of April 21: in 2021, no cash dividends will be paid, no bonus shares will be sent, no provident fund will be used to increase the share capital, and the remaining undistributed profits will be carried forward to future years.
As soon as the "no dividend" news came out, it instantly triggered heated discussions among various stocks.
In this regard, the Ningde era "emergency firefighting" on the second day. On April 22, the relevant person in charge of CATL said in an interview with the media that "no dividends" is that the company has considered the company's development stage, future capital needs and long-term interests of shareholders. "The company expects to have significant investment plans and cash expenditures in terms of capacity construction, R&D investment and raw material procurement in 2022."
CATL said that the company's private placement work is in the process of implementation, and after the completion of the fixed increase, it will distribute profits in accordance with relevant laws and regulations and the company's articles of association, etc., and provide investors with reasonable investment returns.
In other words, in the market environment where new and old competitors compete in the same classroom, catalist era needs more cash flow to stabilize and develop the market.
However, compared with the "long-term interests of shareholders", investors who have endured the decline in stock prices for nearly half a year are obviously difficult to accept. Many shareholders directly questioned, "No dividends, what is the point of buying you?" ”
On May 31, 2021, the closing price of CATL on that day was 434.1 yuan, and the total market value exceeded one trillion yuan for the first time. In December of the same year, the stock price of CATL rushed to the peak, and the total market value once exceeded 1.6 trillion yuan. Winning the title of "King of Ning", the Ningde era has a unique scenery in the capital market.
However, in 2022, the stock price of CATL has shown a downward trend.
On April 20, on the eve of the release of the financial report, the non-reinstated share price of CATL hit a new low, closing at 407 yuan, and the total market value fell below one trillion yuan, about 948.6 billion yuan.
On April 21, the stock price of CATL recovered slightly, and the non-reinstatement closed at 409.11 yuan per share. As of the close of trading on April 22, CATL's offer picked up to 415.34 yuan per share, but the market value was still below trillion yuan. At this time, compared with the highest price of 692 yuan per share in December last year, the stock price of CATL has been nearly 40%.
For the plunge on April 20, some industry voices believe that this is related to the profit of the first quarter of 2022 of catheter times or will be less than expected. In this regard, the Ningde times did not comment.
The title of "King of Ning" brings a huge aura, which also attracts criticism. In February this year, due to a series of market rumors, the stock price of CATL fluctuated sharply. In this regard, the Ningde era directly called the police to debunk the rumors. In fact, since the beginning of this year, the war of words around ningde city's generation of "singing more" and "singing short" has occurred several times in the capital market.
After the release of this round of financial reports, the news of "Hillhouse Capital's withdrawal from the top ten shareholders of the company" has not gone away. In response, CATL responded that Hillhouse Capital did not withdraw, "due to the change of shareholders' names.". According to the annual report, the eighth largest shareholder of CATL was changed to HHLR Management Co., Ltd., China Value Fund, which was renamed from Hillhouse Capital Management Co., Ltd.
Battery gross profit reduction, expansion burn money, "Ning Wang" does not dare to dividend?
According to the financial report, the main business of CATL includes power battery systems, energy storage systems and lithium battery materials. In the past year, the power battery business has remained the absolute main force of the revenue source of the Ningde era, accounting for 70% of the company's overall revenue.
In the power battery market, CATL has a strong coverage, and the cooperative customers almost cover the mainstream OEMs in the new energy vehicle market.
According to the financial report, the long-term cooperative customers of CATL Power Battery in 2021 include Tesla, Hyundai, Ford, Daimler, Great Wall, Ideal, Weilai and other car companies. During the reporting period, the sales revenue of CATL power batteries was about 91.49 billion yuan, an increase of 132.06% year-on-year.
Among them, Tesla has replaced Weilai in the past year as the largest single customer in the Ningde era. According to the financial report, CATL's sales to Tesla reached 13 billion yuan, accounting for 10% of CATL's annual sales.
According to the statistics of the Starting Point Research Institute, in 2021, the installed capacity of power batteries for Tesla in the Ningde era will reach 14.61GWh, accounting for 17.5% of the annual installed capacity of the Ningde era.
The cooperation between the two sides will continue in the future. According to the earlier announcement, CATL signed a supply framework agreement with Tesla in June 2021 and will continue to supply products to Tesla from 2022 to 2025.
In terms of business structure, in the past year, CATL has shown a more balanced business model. The energy storage system business and the lithium battery materials business began to exert their strength, and the contribution to the company's overall revenue rose from 3.86% to 10.45% and 6.81% to 11.86% respectively.
Specifically, during the reporting period, the sales revenue of the energy storage system of the Ningde era reached 13.624 billion yuan, an increase of more than 600% year-on-year. According to the financial report, according to the ICC Xinzhuo information data, the market share of global energy storage battery production in the Ningde era ranked first in 2021.
The company's lithium battery materials business is also stable. During the reporting period, the sales revenue of the business of CATL was 15.457 billion yuan, an increase of 350.74% year-on-year, accounting for 11.86% of the company's overall revenue.
The growth of the sales scale of the main business directly stimulated the increase in the cash flow of the company's operating activities. In 2021, the net cash flow generated by the operating activities of CATL increased by 24.478 billion yuan over the previous year, an increase of 132.82%.
Under the wave of new energy vehicles, the demand for power batteries has surged. Since the beginning of this year, the supply of power batteries has lagged behind, which once affected the product delivery rhythm of car companies.
In the past year, the Ningde era was also almost in a state of "full production". According to the financial report, during the reporting period, the annual battery production capacity of catheter era increased from 69.10GWh in 2020 to 170.39Gwh in 2021, and even so, the capacity utilization rate of the battery system has reached 95%.
Increasing the construction of production capacity has become the key to stabilizing market share. In 2021, CATL will have a production capacity of 140GWh under construction, and will build new production bases such as Zhaoqing in Guangdong, Yichun in Jiangxi, and Guiyang in Guizhou.
The rise in words is the head, but the price increase of the upstream raw materials of power batteries that has lasted so far in the second half of 2021 has brought heavy cost pressure to power battery manufacturers, including the Ningde era.
Specific to the business segment, although the sales revenue of power batteries and energy storage have increased significantly, the gross profit margins of both have declined, falling to 22% and 28.52% respectively. In contrast, the lithium battery materials business has been adjusted upwards by the east wind of the market, and the gross profit margin has risen to 25.12%.
In the face of the soaring price of lithium, in the past year, the Ningde era began to actively buy ore and lay out the upstream industrial chain to hedge the cost risk.
According to the investor survey released earlier by CATL, CATL said that it will ensure the supply of lithium resources through investment cooperation, recycling, self-mining and other ways. Since the beginning of this year, CATL has successively invested in lithium resources in Yichun City and Sichuan Province to prepare for its own mining of lithium ore.
However, compared with the volume of the main business of the power battery in the Ningde era, the pressure brought by the rise of raw materials is greater.
Capacity expansion and layout of lithium resources obviously require more funds. Reflected in the financial report, in 2021, the net outflow of cash flow generated by investment activities in the Ningde era increased by 38.729 billion yuan over the previous year, an increase of 257.29%.
Customer churn concerns
The power battery industry is currently surging undercurrents.
The wave of new energy has driven batteries to become a "blue ocean" market, which is a fragrant food coveted by the industry. More importantly, in the field of power batteries, a dominant industry pattern in the Ningde era is something that automotive OEMs do not want to see.
The power battery system accounts for 40% of the cost of the vehicle, and for this extremely important power component, the car companies hope to take the initiative into their own hands. "De-Ningdeization" once became the traffic topic of the power battery market this year.
According to the statistics of the Starting Point Research Institute, the top ten customers of CATL in 2021 are Tesla, Weilai, Xiaopeng, SAIC, Geely, FAW-Volkswagen, Ideal, Dongfeng, Yutong Bus and SAIC Volkswagen. Great Wall Motors, GAC Passenger Cars and Beijing Motors, which entered the top ten lists in 2020, have disappeared.
Behind this, more automotive OEMs have begun to lay out a diversified power battery supply system.
At the 2021 financial report meeting, Feng Xingya, general manager of GAC Group, said that for the supply of power batteries, market-oriented procurement is only one of the channels, and the group is also making efforts in independent research and development and joint venture cooperation.
In fact, as early as 2018, GAC Group began to cultivate alternative power battery supplier AVIC Lithium Battery (now Sino-Singapore Airlines), and by the middle of 2019, China New Guinea-China Has replaced the Ningde era as the first supplier of power batteries in GAC's autonomous system. At present, the main supply of power batteries of Great Wall Motors has also been replaced by the Group's Hive Energy.
Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal, which are deeply bound to the Ningde era, also actively seek new partners. In March this year, power battery rookie Sunwoda issued a capital increase announcement, which included the affiliates of the above three among the 19 capital increase companies.
In fact, as the power battery market enters a period of technical stability, more power battery suppliers are beginning to emerge.
According to public data, from January to February 2022, CATL ranked first in the loading volume of domestic power battery companies, but the market share fell from 50.2% to 48%, followed by BYD and China Innovation Airlines, and the market share increased, increasing to 21.2% and 8.4% respectively.
When more car companies begin to exert force on the new energy vehicle market, the demand for power batteries begins to surge, and the hidden problem is that the Ningde era may not be able to meet the rising battery demand of many car companies. This gives hope to second-line power battery suppliers. At present, the production capacity "arms race" of power battery manufacturers has begun.
However, the Ningde era seems to remain calm.
In the investor relations activity record table released earlier, CATL responded, "The expansion of friendly business does not mean that competition will increase, and products with innovative material systems and structural systems are worthy of competition."
According to the annual report, in the past year, CATL's capital investment in the field of research and development reached 7.691 billion yuan, exceeding the total investment in research and development in the past two years. However, the proportion of operating income has declined, from 7.09% in 2020 to 5.90%.
In the next few years, CATL will continue to expand production capacity. According to the sales target of 30% market share by 2025, the production capacity layout of CATL is expected to reach about 520GWh before 2025.
CATL hopes to build a "moat" through "heavy research and development". Other power battery suppliers are also "throwing money" investment, at present, more OEMs are also directly trying to "adjust" the market pattern.
"Compared with the market share of more than 50% in the Ningde era, car companies are more willing to see three to five suppliers on the power battery track, which is good for car companies to grasp the right to speak and safety in the supply chain." Auto analyst Zhang Xiang told Caijing Weekly.