After throwing out two major news, Tianqi Lithium's stock price rose nearly 7% today

Interface News Reporter | Wang Yong

The stock price was depressed, and the global lithium leader Tianqi Lithium (002466.SZ) announced two capital moves.

On the evening of October 11, Tianqi Lithium (002466.SZ), the world's leading lithium industry, announced that its largest shareholder, Tianqi Group, terminated the refinancing securities lending business ahead of schedule on October 11 and withdrew all its 0.12% A shares, which was originally scheduled to expire on October 24.

The loan of shares is a loan from Tianqi Group to China Securities Finance Co., Ltd., from April to October this year, with about 2,043,600 shares lent, with a lending ratio of 0.12%. Tianqi Group holds 25.37% of Tianqi Lithium's total share capital.

Tianqi Lithium said that the number of shares participating in this refinancing will not exceed 16.4122 million shares, that is, no more than 1% of the company's total share capital, and the ownership of the loaned shares will not be transferred.

After the above announcement, Tianqi Lithium responded on the investor interactive platform that the company's shares held by Tianqi Group are not restricted shares, and the refinancing securities lending business carried out by Tianqi Group is a regular business carried out according to its own reasonable needs under the premise of compliance with laws and regulations.

At the same time, Tianqi Group increased its holdings in Tianqi Lithium, increasing the number of shares to 1.4111 million shares. After the increase, Tianqi Group held about 416 million shares, and the shareholding ratio increased from 25.28% to 25.37%.

The increase in shareholding by major shareholders further boosted market confidence and together with the news of the early termination of the refinancing business, Tianqi Lithium's short-selling risk. The termination of securities lending is equivalent to reducing the short-selling power or possibility of securities lending, which is conducive to boosting stock prices.

On October 12, Tianqi Lithium's share price rose sharply, closing at 59.28 yuan, up 6.98%, which was its largest one-day increase in nearly five months.

Refinancing refers to the provision of securities and funds by banks, funds, insurance companies and other institutions to provide funds and sources of securities for securities companies to carry out margin financing and securities lending business, and securities companies act as intermediaries to provide these funds and securities to margin customers. The so-called "transfer" refers to the company's "transfer" to customers after borrowing funds and securities, and refinancing includes refinancing business and refinancing securities business.

The business was officially launched in October 2011, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued the Trial Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Refinancing Business. On the whole, the introduction of a complete margin financing and securities lending mechanism in the securities market will not have a negative impact on the securities market in the long run, but on the contrary, it can reduce the large fluctuations in the securities market and play a role in smoothing the violent fluctuations in the securities market.

However, investors are still skeptical about the implementation of this business to specific listed companies, especially after the recent incident of new shares being shorted by securities borrowing and lending, and the stock price has fallen sharply, the market's criticism of refinancing has increased.

For example, on September 1, on the first day of the listing of Jindi shares (603270.SH), which was included in the margin financing and securities lending, the stock price rose all the way, once reaching more than 150%, and then it was sold off by a large number of securities lending, and the stock price plummeted, with a sales volume of up to 221 million yuan on the first day. This has aroused great concern in the market and cast a shadow on the refinancing rules.

In addition to Tianqi Lithium, Compass (300803.SZ), a securities analysis software developer and securities information service provider, also announced in September that it would terminate its refinancing securities lending business ahead of schedule, which is also the first listed company to terminate the business this year.

According to the IB computer team, shareholders terminated their participation in the refinancing securities lending business ahead of schedule, the scale of securities that can be borrowed and borrowed has decreased, the chip structure on the trading side has improved, and the stock price can be expected to recover.

Since the beginning of this year, Tianqi Lithium's share price performance has not been satisfactory. The current price has fallen by about 60% from the all-time high of 142.32 yuan in July 2022.

In the past two years, the company's stock price is closely related to the price of lithium carbonate in its main business and the progress of its overseas business.

In 2021, the price of lithium carbonate soared nearly tenfold to more than 500,000 yuan/yuanton, and will continue to rise to around 600,000/yuanton in 2022. Tianqi Lithium's highest stock price in history was produced against this background.

Tsinghua University Research Institute said in a research report that the rise in lithium prices is mainly due to the rapid rise in global electric vehicle sales in 2021, which has driven the rapid rise in lithium demand and the expectation of higher market demand.

Since then, affected by factors such as the adjustment of the industry cycle and the decline of subsidies for new energy vehicles, the price of lithium carbonate has gradually bid farewell to the high level, and the share price of Tianqi Lithium has lost its glory of more than 100 yuan.

According to the data released by Shanghai Ganglian, on October 12, battery-grade lithium carbonate rose by 500 yuan/ton, and the average price was reported at 179,000 yuan/ton. This is the first rise in nearly eight trading days.

It means that lithium carbonate prices are expected to bottom out, and the news has also stimulated Tianqi Lithium's share price to a certain extent.