NIO goes to Hong Kong for secondary listing
New car-making forces accelerate growth under pressure
Our reporter Zhao Yuhan
After the U.S. stock market, the top three "Wei Xiaoli" in the new car-making force once again gathered in the Hong Kong stock market.
Yesterday, NIO successfully completed its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange through introduction, and officially started trading.
The listing of US and Hong Kong stocks has been completed one after another, and the "small goal" of monthly sales of 10,000 vehicles has been achieved... In the past year, with the explosive growth of the new energy market, Weilai, Ideal and Xiaopeng, the first echelon of new domestic car manufacturers, are on the wave accelerated growth.
However, the tight supply chain of chips and power batteries, rising raw material prices, and more and more traditional car companies entering the new energy market have also put pressure on the still young new forces.
"The listing of 'Weixiaoli' on the Hong Kong stock market will play a positive role in the safety of capital pooling, brand effect, etc., which will help their development." Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Passenger Car Market Information Joint Committee, analyzed.
Weilai landed in Hong Kong stocks in the form of "introduction"
This time the Hong Kong stock market is listed, and Weilai's landing method has attracted much attention.
Different from Ideal, Xiaopeng issued new shares after listing to realize fundraising.
This means that the company cannot raise funds immediately, and it is required to wait 6 months before issuing new shares.
Why choose this way?
The company responded that the cash reserve at the end of the third quarter of 2021 was about 47 billion yuan, and it completed a $2 billion financing in the fourth quarter of the same year.
The company currently has sufficient cash reserves and has no urgent financing needs in the short term.
However, is Weilai really not short of money?
This has been questioned by many industry insiders.
First of all, due to the extreme emphasis on user experience, Weilai's expenditure in this area has always been the most "luxury" among the new forces.
Ideal and Xiaopeng, which are also the first echelon of the new forces, although the financial report shows that they have sufficient cash reserves, they chose to go public to raise funds. The purpose of raising funds is also mainly used for scientific and technological research and development.
However, Weilai did not issue new shares this time, and the industry speculated that this method was faster for approval.
After the ideals of the first echelon and Xiaopeng have been listed on the Hong Kong stock market for the second time, Weilai also hopes to land on the Hong Kong stock market as soon as possible to enhance the brand image, enhance the brand influence and the confidence of the capital market in it.
The pattern of the three new powers has quietly changed
For a long time, people used to use "Wei Xiaoli" to refer to the top three of the new forces.
Since last year, the pattern of the top three has quietly changed.
The change began in July 2021. For the first time, Weilai, which has consistently ranked first in the new power rankings in monthly sales, gave way to the ideal.
Since then, the monthly sales list of the new forces has begun to appear in a situation of "taking turns to sit in the village". Ideal, Xiaopeng, and Weilai have competed for the top spot, and even Nezha Automobile, which was once in the second echelon, has also squeezed into the top three positions.
In this wave of chasing after me, "Wei Xiaoli" and Nezha successively broke through the monthly sales of 10,000 units, and are considered to have completed another milestone after mass production and delivery.
Although Xiaopeng Motors CEO He Xiaopeng humbly believes that the monthly sales exceeding 10,000 is just a "small goal", the rapid growth of the top three new forces is still obvious to all.
However, despite accelerating development, Weilai, which has the highest brand positioning and has always been regarded as the "big brother" of the new force, is facing the question of being left behind.
In terms of sales, Weilai has been surpassed by Ideal and Xiaopeng many times. Although the company has stated that sales are affected by chip shortages and production line transformation, under the same general environment, the growth rate of Weilai's sales has been at a low level for many months. behind.
In addition, judging from the financial report data, taking the third quarter of last year as an example, Weilai spent the most money on marketing expenses, but it failed to exchange for leading sales.
It is for this reason that Weilai is constantly enriching its product matrix in order to obtain new sales growth points.
The growth of new forces is still facing a lot of pressure
Although the achievements are obvious to all, the new forces still face a lot of pressure if they want to continue to grow.
Since the beginning of the year, the subsidy retreat has come as promised, and Xiaopeng has announced a price increase for the whole series, ranging from 4,300 to 5,900 yuan.
There is currently no price change for Weilai, which has a higher positioning, and the ideal that is not affected by this subsidy change.
The decline in subsidies is only one of the reasons why new energy vehicle companies are facing rising costs.
A more severe test comes from the tension of the supply chain and the transmission effect caused by the rising prices of commodities such as raw materials.
Recently, the soaring nickel price due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has affected the cost of batteries. At the same time, the more scarce and more important lithium resources will most likely limit the production capacity of power batteries and push up the price of power batteries. .
"It can be said that the shortage of lithium resources will be one of the biggest pressures on the development of the new energy vehicle market in 2022." Judging by Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the Passenger Federation.
Based on the recent rise in commodity prices, the China Passenger Transport Association lowered its forecast for the sales of new energy vehicles this year from 6 million to 5.5 million at its recent monthly market analysis meeting.
Cui Dongshu believes that the listing of "Weixiaoli" on the Hong Kong stock market is of great positive significance to its development.
"If the US stock market has achieved certain financing and brand advertising effects, returning to Hong Kong stocks will allow new forces to achieve safer capital pooling, which will enable better financing and development. At the same time, it will also have a stronger publicity for brands."