DoNews reported on April 23 that, according to Blue Whale Finance and Economics, on April 19, EVE, which set a revenue plan of 70 billion yuan at the beginning of the year, handed over its report card: in the environment of domestic power battery factory involution, EVE only completed about 7% of the revenue target.
This also means that EVE's previous equity incentive plan is likely to come to naught.
The completion rate of the 70 billion revenue target is less than 7%.
In 2023, EVE will achieve an operating income of about 48.784 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.38%, and a net profit attributable to the parent company of about 4.05 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.42%.
In 2009, EVE from Huizhou landed on the GEM. At present, EVE's revenue mainly comes from the sales of consumer batteries, power batteries and energy storage batteries.
Among them, the sales revenue of power batteries was about 23.984 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 31.41%, accounting for about 49.16% of all revenue, and it is still the company's largest source of income.
However, under the pressure of industry competition, EVE's overall profit margin in the domestic market will be squeezed in 2023. Among them, the gross profit margin of the power battery business fell by 1.59% to 14.37%.
In addition to the increase in installed capacity, the greater influencing factor of EVE's market share is also the impact of profit concessions. In contrast, the gross profit margin of CATL's power battery system was about 22.27%, an increase of 5.1% over the previous year, both of which were much higher than EVE.
On the other hand, EVE's investment income will also shrink significantly in 2023. The superposition of the two-phase impact has led to a slowdown in EVE's net profit growth rate, which is significantly lower than the revenue growth rate in the same period.
In 2019, EVE sold all of its shares in Maxwell to Smoore, and EBIL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of EVE, subscribed for a 37.55% stake in SIHL, while SMOORE was a wholly-owned grandson of SIHL.
As a result, EVE can achieve an indirect shareholding in SMOORE through EBIL. In 2020, Smoore landed in Hong Kong stocks, and EVE was able to obtain a large amount of investment income to increase profits.
In 2020, EVE recognized an investment income of 837 million yuan, accounting for 44% of the total profit of the year, most of which was the long-term equity investment income brought by SMOORE.
After 2021, EVE has achieved a total of HK $1.292 billion through cash dividends from SMOORE for three consecutive years, which has become one of the reasons for EVE's rapid profit growth.
However, in 2023, EVE's cash dividend from Smoore will be reduced to HK$247 million, which is only 46% of the previous year. In addition, in 2023, EVE's annual investment income will be about 609 million yuan, a decrease of 51% from the previous year, and the proportion of total profit will drop to 12.6%.
Although the operating income is still growing, it has not reached the expected growth rate, which directly leads to the equity incentive or will be lost.
In February 2023, EVE mentioned in the fourth phase of the restricted stock incentive plan (draft) that the company-level performance appraisal target value in 2023 is "operating income of not less than 70 billion yuan", and in terms of the final results of EVE Energy, this goal has only been completed by about 7%.
In September 2023, due to the impact of factors such as the involution price reduction of domestic power battery factories, EVE adjusted the performance assessment indicators of the incentive plan, and the minimum completion standard was lowered from 80% to 70%.
However, even so, if 2023 is finally used as the first vesting period, the incentive recipients may not be able to successfully obtain the vesting of the corresponding restricted shares.
However, EVE's "heroic" dividends have set a new record. In the annual report, EVE announced a cash dividend of 5 yuan (tax included) for every 10 shares to all shareholders, with a total cash dividend of about 1.02 billion yuan, which is the largest dividend since its listing, and about the company's total dividend in the past ten years.
Increase the size of energy storage batteries and throw 26 billion expansion plans
At the time when the power battery was dying and dying, the energy storage battery market was relatively stable. According to SNEResearch, an international battery market research organization, global energy storage battery shipments will reach 185GWh in 2023, an increase of about 53% over 2022.
Among them, the demand for energy storage batteries in the Chinese market reached 84GWh, accounting for 45% of the market. The top five global energy storage battery companies are all Chinese companies, and CATL ranks first with 74GWh of energy storage battery shipments, accounting for 40% of the global market.
EVE, which has just experienced the battle of life and death in the power battery industry, is also seeking a place in the energy storage battery market. In 2023, EVE's energy storage battery shipments will be 26.29GWh, second only to CATL and BYD.
From the beginning of 2023 to the end of 2023, lithium prices have fallen by more than 80%, and EVE believes that the continuous decline in the price of lithium battery materials has further opened up the growth space of the energy storage market.
In 2023, EVE's energy storage battery shipments will increase by 121.14%, and the company's annual energy storage battery sales revenue will exceed 16.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 73.24%, accounting for 7.5 percentage points of total revenue, reaching 33.5%, which is closer to the proportion of power batteries.
Compared with power batteries, EVE has found greater profit margins through the growth of energy storage battery revenue. Last year, the gross profit margin of the company's energy storage batteries increased by 8 percentage points to 17.03%, which exceeded the growth of CATL's gross profit margin.
However, as the absolute leader of energy storage batteries, the gross profit margin of CATL's energy storage battery system reached 23.79%, which is still nearly 7 percentage points higher than EVE.
Liu Jincheng of EVE once said that in the field of power batteries, the pattern of "two strong" is very significant, in addition to market share, more importantly, they make money, and the following companies have their own advantages and difficulties.
Obviously, Liu Jincheng will replicate the experience of fighting in the power battery industry in the energy storage battery industry, trying to further expand the market share.
In 2023, EVE will continue to plan to build factories and expand production, and most of the projects are the construction of energy storage battery production bases.
At the beginning of January, EVE signed an investment cooperation agreement with the People's Government of Jianyang City, Sichuan Province for the project of 20GWh power energy storage battery production base. On the same day, the Qujing Municipal Government of Yunnan Province and the Management Committee of Qujing Economic Development Zone expanded the scale of cooperation projects with EVE Lithium Energy, from the original "annual output of 10GWh power energy storage battery investment project" to "annual output of 23GWh cylindrical lithium iron phosphate energy storage power battery project".
At the end of the year, EVE invested in the construction of a 60GWh power energy storage battery production line and auxiliary facilities project in Jingmen High-tech Zone, Hubei Province.
The expansion of production is bound to pull the cash flow of listed companies, and the total investment in the above three projects alone has reached 26.3 billion yuan, and EVE has repeatedly reached out to the market to ask for money, and by the end of 2023, EVE's main interest-bearing liabilities have increased by about 1.334 billion yuan.
During the year, EVE launched a convertible bond issuance plan of 7 billion yuan, of which 4 billion yuan was allocated to the "23GWh cylindrical lithium iron phosphate energy storage power battery project" and 3 billion yuan was allocated to the "21GWh large cylindrical passenger car power battery project".
In addition, the expansion of EVE's power batteries will focus on a broader overseas market, and in 2023, EVE will mainly promote the construction of large cylindrical lithium battery projects overseas, and the company has successively announced plans to build battery production bases in Hungary, Malaysia, Thailand and other places.
As of the end of 2023, EVE's book fixed assets increased by 100% compared with the previous year, while there are still more than 14 billion yuan of projects under construction.