① The listed company Zhiguang Electric recently announced that its holding subsidiary Zhiguang Energy Storage has completed a new round of financing, with a total scale of 700 million yuan, and the post-investment valuation increased to 2.5 billion yuan; ② Most of the investors attracted by Zhiguang Energy in this round of financing have a state-owned background. Among them, Guangdong Finance Holdings invested a total of 300 million yuan through its two funds, and the CDK Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund invested 300 million yuan.
“Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily”, April 10 (Reporter Ao Jin) Listed company Zhiguang Electric recently announced that its holding subsidiary Zhiguang Energy Storage has introduced 10 external institutional shareholders in one go in the latest round of financing, many of whom have state-owned backgrounds.
According to the announcement, Zhiguang Energy Storage started this round of financing at the end of last year and has recently completed settlement. The state-owned investment platforms participating in this round include the Manufacturing Transformation and Upgrading Fund under CDF, Guangdong Finance Holdings, a provincial financial holding company, the Southern Grid Fund under China Southern Power Grid, and Guangzhou Industrial Control, a municipal state-owned enterprise.
Zhiguang Energy Storage received a total capital increase of 700 million yuan in this round, and its post-investment valuation increased to 2.5 billion yuan.
The withdrawal arrangement has been clarified
According to Zhiguang Electric's announcement, the current round of financing for Zhiguang Energy Storage began in December 2023. The purpose of increasing capital and expanding shares includes enhancing capital strength and gathering superior resources from various parties to form a synergy effect.
Most of the investors attracted by Zhiguang Energy Storage in this round of financing have a state-owned background. Among them, Guangdong Finance Holdings invested a total of 300 million yuan through its two funds, the Guokai Manufacturing Industry Transformation and Upgrading Fund invested 300 million yuan, and the Nanwang Energy Innovation Equity Investment Fund, a subsidiary of Nanwang.
Other state-owned investors include Guangzhou Industrial Control Group, Guangzhou City Investment Group, and Guangzhou Development Zone Investment Group.
After the completion of this round of capital increase, Zhiguang Electric's direct and indirect ownership ratio of Zhiguang Energy Storage was changed to 66.82%, and it is still the latter's controlling shareholder.
It is worth mentioning that at the beginning of the announcement of the current round of capital increases, exit arrangements were already clarified, including methods such as rollover acquisitions, share acquisitions, and consensual transfers. Recently, when announcing the progress of Zhiguang's energy storage financing through official WeChat, Zhiguang Electric also specifically mentioned the exit path of an upside acquisition, which means that in the future, each investor can choose to withdraw by purchasing shares held by Zhiguang Electric to hold shares in Zhiguang Energy Storage. If this method is chosen, the investor will become a shareholder of Zhiguang Electric.
A startup investor relations source told the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter that due to the current situation where it is difficult to withdraw from the primary market, all parties will consider withdrawing ahead during the financing phase. It further stated that Zhiguang Energy Storage, as a holding subsidiary of a listed company, has been able to successfully obtain financing bonuses under current circumstances.
According to commercial data, Zhiguang Energy Storage has previously completed two rounds of financing in 2020 and 2021. Investors include Wanlian Tianze and Ketai Power.
According to data from the Financial Federation Venture Capital Connect, up to now this year, a total of 21 energy storage-related projects have announced the completion of financing, including energy storage equipment developer Huazhi Energy, energy storage equipment manufacturer Mingdu New Energy, and energy storage system developer Singularity Energy. There was an overall decrease in the number of financing incidents in the energy storage sector compared to the same period last year.
Frequent interaction with Guangdong state-owned assets
Zhiguang Electric officially established a subsidiary Zhiguang Energy Storage in 2018 to develop the energy storage business.
Zhiguang Energy Storage provides customers with services such as energy storage investment, system integration, and equipment sales in technical fields such as electrochemical energy storage and supercapacitor energy storage. It can also provide system integrators with technology and equipment such as energy storage battery PACK integration, as well as cell testing technology services. Its energy storage products include power station-type high-capacity energy storage systems (cascaded high-voltage energy storage), demand-side energy storage systems (modular low-voltage energy storage), and mobile energy storage products.
According to the announcement, as of the third quarter of last year, Zhiguang Energy Storage had total assets of 1,775 billion yuan, achieving operating income of 731 million yuan and net profit of 44.873 million yuan.
It is worth mentioning that Zhiguang Electric's 2022 annual report shows that out of its five major subsidiaries, only Zhiguang Energy Storage achieved profits, with a net profit of 10.118,800 yuan for the year. Other subsidiaries, Guangzhou Lingnan Cable Co., Ltd., Guangdong Zhiguang Comprehensive Energy Co., Ltd., and Guangzhou Zhiguang Electric Technology Co., Ltd., had net losses of 51.9436 million yuan, 175 million yuan, 19.84 million yuan, and 12.3237 million yuan respectively.
Zhiguang Electric has a lot of interaction with state-owned assets in the field of energy storage. Last year, as the only private enterprise, it participated in the investment and establishment of the Guangzhou Energy Storage Group with three state-owned enterprises, including Guangzhou Industrial Investment and Guangzhou Industrial Control. Zhiguang Electric's investment amount is 100 million yuan.
As can be seen from the above series of actions, not only are there private enterprises such as Zhiguang Electric hoping to seize the opportunities brought by the development of energy storage to create a second development curve, but Guangdong state-owned assets are also seizing the development opportunities of this wave of new industries.
In March of last year, the Guangdong Provincial Government issued the “Guiding Opinions on Promoting High-Quality Development of New Energy Storage Industries in Guangdong Province”, proposing to make the new energy storage industry a strategic pillar industry “leading the manufacturing industry” in Guangdong Province. By 2025, the revenue of the new energy storage industry in the province will reach 600 billion yuan, an average annual increase of more than 50%, and the installed capacity will reach 3 million kilowatts.
Data show that from January to September 2023, the new energy storage industry in Guangdong Province achieved revenue of nearly 289 billion yuan, an increase of 7.3% over the previous year.