Special topic: polar krypton listed on the New York Stock Exchange on May 10 to set a new record for the fastest listing of new energy car companies.
(by Li Jieyin / tr. by Phil Newell)
Editor | Shi Zhiliang
Three years after its birth, Polar Krypton listed on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming the largest Chinese company to visit the United States as an IPO since October 2021, and the fastest new car maker to go public.
May 10th, polar krypton (NYSE)Gamebet1comZK) sold 21 million American depositary shares at $21 per share, raising about 4% of the funds.Gamebet1com41 billion US dollars. If the underwriter exercises its over-allotment right, the offering will be further expanded to 24.15 million ADS shares, raising about $507 million.
Polar Krypton was founded in March 2021, focusing on the high-end pure tram market, and the brand's first product, Polar Krypton 001, was officially launched in April, opening the way for the delivery of Polar Krypton. By the end of April 2024, Polar Krypton delivered more than 240000 vehicles.
Li Shufu already has nine listed companies in his hands (not counting those that have already submitted their forms, but are still in operation). And itsGamebet1comCompared with his brother subsidiary, Polar Krypton has received the most support from the group and is under the greatest pressure to seek new energy transformation.
It is not too much to say "standing on the shoulders of giants". Relying on the entire Geely Group, Pole Krypton has received investment in talent, technology, procurement, capital and other aspects, and has built a complete set of research, production and marketing system.
Prior to this, Geely took the lead in putting forward Blue Geely Action, which intends to take its own market share in the electrified market during the planning period. In the years that followed, however, sales of both electric and fuel vehicles were overtaken by competitors. Once caused external doubts about Geely's "clean and old, still able to eat".
Polar krypton is an important part of Geely's battle to clear his name. In this context, Polar Krypton has been directly independent and upgraded to an independent company from the pure electricity division of Lecker Motor.
"listing is just a starting point, a link in the whole marathon." As Polar Krypton CEO an Conghui told Caijing, Geely Holdings aims to become a Volkswagen Group in the era of new energy vehicles, while Polar Krypton shoulders the global mission of high-end pure electricity.
Polar krypton CEO an Cong Hui
Polar krypton still has a long way to go in terms of volume and money; similarly, the entire Geely holding Group still has a lot of work to do to transform itself into an aircraft carrier formation.
However, the most important thing is that in the face of so many subsidiaries, Geely needs to think about a new problem-- how to have more children and fight easily, how to effectively be consistent with the outside world, and how to avoid fighting in the same room.Gamebet1com? This not only requires differences at the product level, but there may also be too many "Geely" representatives in the capital markets. After all, even Volkswagen Group, with the exception of Porsche, most other brands and assets are also installed in the group matrix. Perhaps, in the capital market, Geely will stage a drama of "break up for a long time".
01
Why choose beauty stocks, why at this time?
In the past two years, many new car-building forces have pointed to the creative board, and extreme krypton is also one of them, but no whole car company has been able to do so.
At the end of last year, Polar Krypton submitted an IPO prospectus to the United States and plans to raise $1 billion, valuing it at more than $13 billion. This time IPO was suspended a month later. At that time, relevant sources revealed to the media that the reason was that valuation expectations did not match.
The trip to the New York Stock Exchange is to restart the listing plan of extreme Krypton.
There are some confused voices in the industry. For example, why choose the US stock exchange at this juncture, and how to control the risk? For example, compared with previous valuations, why do you still insist on going public when the market capitalization is shrinking?
An Conghui said at the communication meeting after ringing the bell: this IPO is strategic. Polar Krypton is a global brand that faces the global market as soon as it is born. In the face of global capital, users and technology, the United States is the gathering place of global capital and is optimistic about new energy vehicles. This strategy determines our long-term doctrine, and we can't just look at the valuation and price of IPO. This can enhance the more transparent management of polar krypton worldwide and better participate in global competition.
In February 2023, Polar Krypton announced the completion of $750 million in round A financing. After the completion of the round A financing deal, analysts said that the valuation of polar krypton had risen to $13 billion, much higher than it is now. Under the original IPO plan, Polar Krypton received $1 billion in financing, and now it is less than $500m. There is a view that this is because extreme krypton is eager to return blood.
According to the prospectus, the net losses of polar krypton in 2021, 2022 and 2023 were 4.514 billion yuan, 7.655 billion yuan and 8.264 billion yuan respectively.
At the same time, in terms of R & D, the R & D investment of 2021, 2022 and 2023 polar krypton is 3.16 billion yuan, 5.446 billion yuan and 8.369 billion yuan respectively, and the cumulative R & D investment is nearly 17 billion yuan.
From the above point of view, the extreme krypton, which is still in the loss stage, is indeed under a lot of cash flow pressure.
There are also welcome changes. In 2023, the gross profit margin of polar krypton vehicles was 15%, up from 1.8% in 2021 and 4.7% in 2022. Compared with other new car-building forces, Xiaopeng's vehicle gross profit margin in 2023 is-1.6%, Lulai is 11.9%, Tesla is 18.2%, and ideal car is 21.5%.
Not only gross profit, but also revenue is improving. The total operating income of polar krypton in 2021, 2022 and 2023 was 6.5 billion yuan, 31.9 billion yuan and 51.7 billion yuan respectively, and revenue in 2023 increased by 62% compared with the same period last year.
Dai Yong, deputy CFO of Geely Automobile Group, once told Caijing that polar krypton will strive to achieve the goal of turning losses into profits (in accordance with Hong Kong financial reporting standards) in 2024 on the premise of higher sales and higher gross profits.
An Conghui, president of Geely Holdings Group, chairman of Geely Automobile Group and CEO of polar krypton intelligent technology, said at the performance meeting: "Polar Krypton will launch three new products in 2024 and is full of confidence in the delivery target of 230000 vehicles for the whole year."
From January to April 2024, polar krypton delivered a total of 49148 vehicles, an increase of more than 110% over the same period last year. Among them, the monthly sales of polar krypton reached a new high in April, with sales of 16089 vehicles, up 23.6% from the previous month and 99% from the same period last year.
As for the shrinking valuations, people concerned told Caijing that that was only one side of the story of investment banks last year, when the auto environment no longer supported valuations of more than $10 billion.
This is the truth, times change, the environment is not based on people's will, the window of opportunity is limited, it is impossible to wait. The past cannot be remonstrated, but those who come can still be pursued.
There has been a price war in the automobile industry since 2023, and the growth rate of sales in the industry since the beginning of 2024 is not optimistic. at this time, it is a choice to obtain financing, reserve ammunition and focus on product planning and market through listing.
According to the plan, about 45% of the proceeds from the sale of American depositary shares will be used to develop more advanced electric passenger vehicle technology and expand the product portfolio; about 45% will be used for sales and marketing, and to expand the service and charging network of the polar krypton group; about 10% will be used for general corporate purposes, including working capital requirements, to support the business operation and development of the polar krypton group.
The capital market expressed its views with money. Polar Krypton has locked in the subscription intention of Geely, Ningde Times, Mobileye and other capital in advance, and it is also very popular in the capital market. according to the Financial Associated Press, the company has been nearly five times oversubscribed and ended the subscription one day ahead of schedule.
As for why the NYSE?
Last year, polar krypton entered the European market and established a direct operation network. Polar krypton has been sold in Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany. Europe's first polar krypton center store officially opened in Sweden on November 16 last year.
In addition to the European market, polar krypton has also strengthened ties with other regions, signed agreements with Israel and Kazakhstan, and landed in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain Gulf countries.
The right rudder models of polar krypton 009 and polar krypton X will go on sale in Hong Kong and Macao simultaneously in 2024, and the polar krypton brand is accelerating to the global market.
That's the answer to choosing the New York Stock Exchange.
After all, there is no point in talking about right or wrong without timing. In the face of the choice of polar krypton, the resulting discussion is that the benevolent people have their own opinions.
02
Geely becomes the vanguard of Volkswagen to break the situation.
No matter on the market or in sales, some people always ask why polar krypton is so fast.
Polar krypton is not without stories. Polar Krypton was born out of the Lock brand under Geely Automobile Group, when the high-end brand pioneer Lock established the pure electric division; at that time, the domestic automobile market had long been changing, and Tesla and Wei Xiaoli seemed to rewrite the competitive pattern of automobiles, occupying the market share and voice of electrification. In such a fierce competition, from the subsidiary division to the independent company, with promotion management and full empowerment, extreme krypton was born. An Conghui, Geely's chief product manager, started his business again and went straight out to build a car.
If you look back, you'll find. Polar krypton was born at a wonderful time, when Geely faced a lot of external questions about pure electricity, and there was only one way to prove itself-to build a car that consumers were willing to buy. From this point of view, polar krypton was born in a hurry.
If you look at it another way, you will get a different answer. In an Conghui's view, the source of extreme krypton can be traced back to the original PMA car construction project team, grass snake ash line has long been arranged. Therefore, he has repeatedly said that the current achievement of polar krypton is the result of the long-term blessing of the entire Geely system.
Indeed, according to Caijing, since the birth of polar krypton, Geely has given a series of systematic benefits from the group level, such as preferential centralized purchase prices and preferential treatment for guaranteed supply. for example, senior executives are transferred from the group to support polar krypton to build a business team, which makes polar krypton a rare company with a full configuration of research, production and marketing.
It's not just history.
A noteworthy phenomenon in the prospectus is that the revenue composition of polar krypton is diversified. Unlike traditional car companies and new car-building powers, more than 90% of their revenue depends on sales of cars, and Pole Krypton also maintains a strong revenue capacity in the three power business, R & D and other services. Data show that revenue other than polar krypton vehicles accounted for 38% of total revenue in the first half of this year.
A significant portion of polar krypton's revenue comes from intellectual property revenue shared by SEA's vast architecture to other vehicle companies. The pure electric platform, which took five years to invest more than 20 billion, is a polar krypton technology base that spans a wheelbase of 1.8m to 3.3m and can range from A-Class to E-Class cars.
There are many companies and businesses that master core technology under Polar Krypton. For example, Ningbo Weirui sells hardware such as battery packs, while CEVT provides intelligent software. The two companies serve almost all Geely brands and generate most of their revenue from polar krypton. As a result, polar krypton has built a business triangle covering car sales, battery packs and technical services.
What's the reason for extreme krypton?
To answer this question, you need to focus on the entire Geely Group.
"listing is just a starting point, a link in the whole marathon." As Polar Krypton CEO an Conghui told Caijing, Geely Holdings aims to become a Volkswagen Group in the era of new energy vehicles, while Polar Krypton shoulders the global mission of high-end pure electricity.
Sort out today's Geely Holdings Group, Geely, Lecker, Polar Krypton, long-range, Radar, LEVC, smart, Lutes, under brands such as Cloud, these are just passenger car business lines, excluding commercial vehicles and other innovative businesses. As above, these brands are more or less electrified as the main force to accelerate the layout.
Interestingly, just take technology licensing and battery packs as an example, Ningbo Weirui and CEVT, owned by Polar Krypton, are suppliers and technical service providers to many of these companies. In the development of Geely Brothers, it should still play a forward-looking and vanguard role.
Editor: Zhao Cheng
