Li Shufu and Geely Holding Group have added another corner to their capital map.
On April 29, Cao Cao, a subsidiary of Geely Group, submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. According to the prospectus, Cao Cao Travel is the third largest online car-hailing platform in China, with a revenue of 10.78 billion yuan and an annual loss of 1.98 billion yuan in 2023. Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding Group, and his affiliates hold more than 80% of the shares and are the actual controllers.
If Cao Cao successfully lands on the Hong Kong stock market, it will become the ninth listed company of Li Shufu after Geely Automobile, Volvo Cars, Polestar, ECARX, Qianjiang Motorcycle, Hanma Technology, Lifan Technology and Lotus Technology.
If you count the ZEEKR automobiles, radar automobiles, and long-range automobiles that have repeatedly reported that they are preparing for IPOs, the capital territory of Li Shufu, the former "cattle herding baby" and now the "car madman", may continue to expand, and the situation of having more than ten listed companies in the future is just around the corner.
Ride-hailing ranked third in the market
The market share is only 6% of Didi's
According to Frost & Sullivan's information, Cao Cao has been among the top three online car-hailing platforms in China from 2021 to 2023 in terms of GTV.
Among them, the top five domestic ride-hailing platforms in 2023 will occupy a total of 90.6% of the market share. The Beijing-based industry leader has a 75.6% market share, and its GTV will reach about 192.4 billion yuan in 2023, far exceeding the sum of the 2nd-5th places. Obviously, this industry leader is likely to refer to the domestic online car-hailing giant Didi. The company that ranks second with a market share of about 6.2% is most likely T3 Travel, headquartered in Nanjing. Cao Cao ranked third, with a market share of 4.8%.
In 2023, Cao Cao Travel has achieved a positive gross profit margin. According to the prospectus, the company's gross profit margin increased from negative 24.4% in 2021 to positive 5.8% in 2023. In addition, the net operating cash flow status of 2021 and 2022 changed to positive net operating cash flow in 2023.
Previously, Cao Cao Travel had experienced 3 rounds of financing, with a pre-investment valuation of 17 billion yuan. Cao Cao revealed that the financing will be mainly used for: upgrading and launching customized vehicles, improving car service solutions and improving service quality, expanding geographical coverage, improving technology and investing in autonomous driving.
Li Shufu, a native of Taizhou:
He is a "car maniac" and a master of capital operation
Li Shufu was born in a mountain village in Taizhou, Zhejiang, he called himself a "cattle herding baby", before entering the automotive field, he produced refrigerators, manufactured motorcycles, and went through five entrepreneurial transformations, is one of the representatives of Zhejiang's grassroots economy.
"What is a sedan? Isn't it just four wheels, a few sofas, and an iron shell? In 1997, Li Shufu's "ridicule" that shocked everyone has been talked about so far. With a senseless momentum, Li Shufu resolutely stepped from "two wheels" to "four wheels", thus opening a legendary car-making history of more than 20 years.
In January this year, Li Shufu made his first e-commerce live broadcast
In the capital market, Li Shufu is also a good hand.
Among them, it has to be mentioned that in 2010, the Volvo acquisition case, which was likened to a "rural guy marrying a foreign princess", also made Geely the first multinational company in the domestic automotive industry. Ten years later, Volvo Cars announced its listing on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, the largest IPO in Swedish history and the second largest IPO in Europe that year.
Through external mergers and acquisitions and internal incubation, Li Shufu's capital territory is getting bigger and bigger, and its listed companies have reached 8, distributed in the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Hong Kong Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, Swiss Stock Exchange and other domestic and foreign exchanges. With the resumption of ZEEKR's IPO in the United States in March this year and Cao Cao's submission of a prospectus on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Li Shufu's 9th and 10th listed companies may be officially unveiled in the near future.
Orange Persimmon Interactive reporter Wang Xiaoxiao