In the past, the "lithium king", wait for the opportunity to return to Hong Kong

Source | Bohufn

Author | Li Xia

After completing the "snake swallowing" overseas merger in 2018, Tianqi Lithium has been trapped in debt anxiety. In addition, after two consecutive years of losses, not only did it not be money in 2020, but also at the end of the verge of retreat, but also ended in the background. City risk.

On May 19, Tianqi Lithium heard the hearing of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and a hanging heart finally settled down. After paying off the debt, how far is Tianqi Lithium from the "lithium king"?

The late listing, 3 years of wind and rain fluttering

On September 13, 2021, Tianqi Lithium announced the launch of the Hong Kong stock market. In January of this year, Tianqi Lithium submitted an application for the issuance of listing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. On June 2, Tianqi Lithium issued an announcement saying that the listing was approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

It is reported that the IPO Tianqi Lithium industry plans to raise funds of 1 billion to 1.2 billion US dollars. If the news is true, it is expected to become the largest IPO of Hong Kong stocks during the year. The use of IPO funds is debt repayment, production capacity expansion, and supplementary operating capital.

In December 2018, Tianqi Lithium acquired a 23.77%stake in Chile SociedAd Quimica Y Minera de Chile S.A. Net assets are only 12 billion yuan. In order to complete this acquisition, Tianqi Lithium chose to go public IPO.

In August 2018, Tianqi Lithium submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, plans to raise $ 1 billion in funds, and 90%of the fundraising amount will be used for reinforcement of SQM companies' shares.

However, in 2018, lithium prices are in a trough period, and the company's chairman Jiang Weiping believes that the valuation of Hong Kong stocks is too low, so listing issues are suspended.

(Lithium carbonate price data: wild swan net)

In order to successfully promote the acquisition of planning since 2016, Tianqi Lithium has embarked on another way: debt financing.

It is reported that when the acquisition of SQM, Tianqi Lithium has only $ 350 million in its own funds, and the remaining $ 3.716 billion is obtained through borrowing. Among them, US $ 3.5 billion in loans with cross -border mergers and acquisitions, which directly led to the surge in the pressure of Tianqi Lithium in the next few years.

At the end of the third quarter of 2018, Tianqi Lithium's total liabilities were 8.8 billion, and the asset -liability ratio was 42.37%. After borrowing the money, the total liabilities jumped to 32.7 billion at the end of the year, and the asset -liability ratio was 73.26%. Latest debt has since risen, reaching 82.32%in 2020.

There is still profitability with liabilities. In 2018, the net profit of Tianqi Lithium was 2.2 billion yuan, and in 2019, it turned from profit to huge losses, with a net loss of nearly 6 billion, and the net loss in 2020 narrowed to 1.8 billion. In the rules of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the two consecutive accounting years of losses have been risked by delisting.

On the one hand, the asset -liability ratio is getting higher and higher, and on the other hand, the company has lost its profitability. So at the end of November 2020, when a loan of 1.884 billion US dollars expired, Tianqi Lithium did not pay money. Can seek a month of exhibition.

Since the beginning of 2020, I know that Tianqi Lithium, who has been unable to pay back, began to find strategic investment. Finally, at the end of 2020, Tianqi Lithium industry waited for Australia's nickel lithium miner IGO.

In July 2021, IGO received $ 1.395 billion in Tianqi Lithium. At the end of the third quarter of 2021, the debt of Tianqi Lithium was reduced to 25.8 billion, and the asset -liability ratio dropped to 60.59%. The debt crisis was relieved.

However, the remaining debt needs to find a way by Tianqi Lithium. Fortunately, Tianqi Lithium has re -achieved profit in 2021. At the same time, lithium prices have continued to rise, and the price of lithium carbonate has also increased from a low of 42,000/ton in June 2020 to 457,000/ton in June this year.

(Snowball screenshot)

Now, the stock price of Tianqi Lithium has been at a historical high of about 115 yuan. For Tianqi lithium industry, which has been carrying this debt for more than 3 years, it is the best time to go public in Hong Kong.

Lithium king, transformation, gambling

Regardless of or after it, the acquisition of SQM in Tianqi Lithium was a very adventurous "snake swallowing" move.

However, thanks to the surge in lithium prices caused by the major environment, Tianqi lithium industry benefits, and the SQM should be better to digest the SQM in the future.

Looking back at the history of Tianqi Lithium, this once -listed company that has been calm for many years can stand out from A shares, relying on this small gambler's behavior.

In 1997, Jiang Weiping established Chengdu Tianqi Industrial Co., Ltd., mainly doing the business business of mineral import and export. Sichuan Province, which was established two years earlier than Tianqi Industrial, was produced in lithium salt. It is also a customer of Tianqi Industrial. What it does is to import lithium ore from abroad, and then sell it to Shighong Lithium.

However, at that time, the market's demand for lithium resources was not high. Only aerospace and more than 10,000 pieces of big brothers had demand for lithium batteries. This has led to the loss of the lithium industry for years and at the edge of bankruptcy.

Under such an opportunity, in 2004, Jiang Weiping took out 11.44 million huge sums of money to settle in the Lithium of the Honghong and officially transformed into the lithium salt processing industry. In 2007, the Shenghong Lithium Salt Factory completed the reform of the "Guojin people" and officially renamed Tianqi Lithium Industry Co., Ltd.

In 2010, the country first listed lithium battery new materials and new energy vehicles as national strategic emerging industries. At the same time, smartphones and digital products have increased sharply on lithium resources. At the tons, Tianqi Lithium became the "lithium king" at that time, and successfully landed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. However, after the listing, Tianqi Lithium industry's performance was mediocre. From the published data, from 2007 to 2012, the revenue has been settled back and forth between 200 million and 400 million, and the net profit of the mother is basically maintained in 30,000 to 40 million.

In order to break through the ceiling, Tianqi Lithium made a decision in 2012 to acquire suppliers who have cooperated with them for 15 years, Australia's Terrison. At that time, Tylesen had the world's largest lithium -produced lithium mine resources, GreenBushhes, and occupied more than 30%of the global lithium resources. 80%of the lithium concentrates in the Chinese market were supplied by Tylesson.

You should know that in 2012, Tianqi Lithium's revenue was only 400 million, which is equivalent to buying a lithium mine in 12.5 years of revenue in the post. In contrast About 5 times. This time, it is more appropriate to use the "snake swallowing elephant".

At the same time, in 2012, Tianqi Lithium, after spending nearly one million yuan for exploration, obtained the mining rights of Torohpi Mine Mine in Yajiang County, Sichuan Province. In 2014, Tianqi Lithium acquired 20%of the equity of Tibet's Shiga Zabeye Lithium. Zabeye Lithium has the exclusive mining right of Zabeya Salt Lake. It ranks second in the world.

With the mine, Tianqi Lithium has begun to produce production capacity. In 2015, Tianqi Lithium acquired all the equity of Galaxy Lithium International, and successfully owned the world's first fully automated battery -level lithium carbonate production line; in the same year, the Galaxy Lithium industry with 17,000 tons of lithium carbonate production capacity was acquired.

In 2016, Tianqi Lithium was started in a fully automatic lithium salt chemical plant in Qunana, Australia. In 2017, Chongqing Tianqi was established to add metal lithium production capacity.

In the past few years, Tianqi Lithium Industry's financial indicators have also changed their heads. In 2013, the revenue of Tianqi Lithium broke 1 billion instantly. In 2014, the net profit of returning to the mother also changed from a loss to profit and exceeded 100 million yuan for the first time. After that, it remained high to 2018. The net profit of home is 2.2 billion, which is not the same as 2012.

In this context, in 2018, Tianqi Lithium acquired SQM, and wanted to further grasp the global lithium resources and seek the next high growth, which is a matter of course.

Great pork flavor lithium track

In the past two years, the unstable global situation has allowed the rise of lithium prices to an unprecedented height, which helped Tianqi Lithium Industry find the opportunity to go public in Hong Kong for three years, helping to resolve its debt problem. But at the same time, it exacerbated the competition of lithium.

Lithium resources are one of the important raw materials for power batteries. Power batteries are important parts of automobile costs. Its rising and falling downstream car companies are frightened. At the same time, the landslide of subsidies for new domestic energy vehicles has been superimposed. Since this year, car companies have announced many times that electric vehicles have increased prices, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands, which undoubtedly reduces the competitive advantage of car companies.

Lusions are not rare metals. There is no shortage of lithium on the earth, but lithium is obviously affected by supply and demand. It is similar to pork and is periodic. This is huge instability for car companies. In order to control the cost, the capable car company has joined the competition of lithium ore.

At the 2022 Future Auto Summit held in May this year, Musk said that "on the way to accelerate the transition of sustainable energy, we will solve any constraints, mining, refining, or acquisition of a mining company. Do it. "

Earlier, Musk claimed that he was building his own lithium ore refinement plant and had won the right to mining a lithium ore in Nevada. In February of this year, Tesla signed a procurement order with a Australian lithium miner, and scheduled the annual output of 1/3 of the lithium mineral flagship project.

In addition, BYD, the new trillion car company, has been deployed on lithium resources very early. The Zabeye lithium industry mentioned above, BYD invested about 200 million yuan in 2010 to receive 18%of the shares. In May this year, BYD reached the intention of acquisition of six lithium mines in Africa to meet the production of 27.78 million 60 -degree pure trams (Soochow Securities).

In addition to the war of car companies to join lithium grabbing ore, Zijin Mining in the field of non -ferrous metals is also involved. In January of this year, Zijin Mining acquired a Canadian new lithium, which has the top five of the world's top five and top three lithium salt lake projects. At the end of April this year, Zijin Mining issued an announcement that it was planned to acquire four asset packages of Dunan Group, including 70%of the Tibetan Alibaba Fruit Salt Lake Lithium Mine.

The most outrageous thing is that even the Songdu shares of the real estate company have participated. On March 13 this year, Songdu announced that he would participate in the implementation of the "Argentina Lithium Potassium Co., Ltd.'s annual output of 50,000 tons of lithium carbonate salt lake construction project equipment, operation, and technical services".

This scene looks like the second brother who can't afford to eat in 2020, the pig companies expand production capacity, and the price of pigs that were terrible in 2021.

For Tianqi Lithium Industry, it can only be listed earlier when the lithium price is high, seeking high valuations to repay debts. However, Tianqi Lithium may need to think more about the product chain.

For more than ten years, Tianqi Lithium has been focusing on the development and production capacity of lithium ore. The products are biased to the middle and upper reaches, mainly including lithium concentrate and lithium compounds and derivatives (battery -grade lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate). The two contributed 35%and 65%of their revenue. In the same year, Ganfeng Lithium, which was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, is now more long on the product chain, covering upstream lithium resource development, midstream lithium salt processing and metal lithium smelting, downstream lithium battery manufacturing and recycling. 18%of revenue.

In the outlook of 2021, Tianqi Lithium mentioned that in 2022, it will actively carry out cooperation with downstream enterprises to invest in the next generation of high -performance lithium batteries, lithium sulfide preparation, and brine lithium lifting technology. In 2021, there were 33 R & D personnel in Tianqi Lithium, and the R & D investment was about 19 million, accounting for 1.86%and 0.25%of the number of employees and total revenue, respectively.

In the secondary market, the total market value of Ganfeng Lithium is 210 billion yuan, and Tianqi Lithium industry is 167 billion. Tianqi Lithium will return to the throne of "Lithium King", and there is still a way to go.

Reference source:

1. Suining City Economic and Information Bureau: Shooting Hong: Thirty years of "lithium", thirty years and "lithium" to start again

2. China Business News: Tianqi Lithium Ten billion debt exhibition is facing delisting risk

3. All -weather technology: Jiang Weiping returned to the rich list of the rich, and Tianqi Lithium returned strongly?

4. Financial Association: Musk: The Chinese market or Tesla's sales will be possible to acquire mining companies in the future

5. Daily Economic News: Tianqi Lithium Volumes to listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange! Hong Kong stocks may have the largest IPO Tesla in the year?

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