In the field of electric vehicles, Tianqi Lithium led the investment in smart with 1 billion yuan

Interface News Reporter | Wang Yong

Tianqi Lithium (002466.SZ), a leading lithium salt company, has extended its business downward and begun to set foot in the field of electric vehicles.

On the evening of September 13, Tianqi Lithium's official WeChat official account announced that it had signed a number of cooperation agreements with Geely Holdings, Mercedes-Benz, and smart brand global companies (hereinafter referred to as smart).

Among them, Tianqi Lithium signed agreements with Geely Holding and Mercedes-Benz respectively as strategic cooperation agreements and memorandums of understanding, and signed a share subscription agreement with smart to lead smart's Series A financing with US$150 million (about 1.073 billion yuan).

Tianqi Lithium said that the cooperation does not stop at the level of financial investment. Through this cooperation, the two parties will use the upstream and downstream information advantages of the new energy industry chain to give full play to the synergistic efficiency of the industry.

Jiang Weiping, chairman of Tianqi Lithium, said that this is the first time that Tianqi Lithium has established contact with the downstream automotive end of the industrial chain, which will further deepen the company's understanding of the new energy industry chain.

Headquartered in Singapore, smart is the controlling shareholder of Smart Motor Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Smart Motor), whose main business is the manufacture and sales of new energy vehicles. Smart Motor, which was jointly funded by Geely Automobile and Mercedes-Benz, was controlled by Smart after they withdrew from the list of shareholders in June this year.

smart itself is also a brand of Mercedes-Benz, and the total amount of this Series A financing is 250 million to 300 million US dollars.

After this financing, Mercedes-Benz holds 43.397% of the shares, Tianqi Lithium holds 2.83% of the shares, Sunrise Mobility holds 39.057% of the shares, and ZMD Capita holds 4.34% of the shares. The latter two are Geely Holding's overseas subsidiaries and Geely Holding's affiliates, respectively.

According to the data released by smart, in June this year, smart delivered 3,829 units in the Chinese market, an increase of nearly 46% month-on-month, and the cumulative delivery volume in the Chinese market in the first half of the year was about 23,500 units. In overseas markets, deliveries of smart's Phantom #1 have already started in Germany and France, and plans to launch and deliver it in other European markets.

According to financial data, smart's revenue in the first half of this year was 5.21 billion yuan, an increase of nearly three times compared with the whole year of 2022, and the net loss was 660 million yuan, compared with a net loss of 1.46 billion yuan last year.

In 2019, smart announced its transition to electrification, with its first all-electric SUV designed by Mercedes-Benz's global design department and supported by Geely's global R&D center.

In June 2022, the smart Phantom #1 was launched with a price range of 181,600-226,600 yuan, and the second model, the smart Phantom #3, was launched in June this year, with a price range of 209,900-289,900 yuan for the four configuration models in the domestic market.

In terms of getting involved in the field of electric vehicles, Tianqi Lithium will also face risks. From 2023 onwards, the growth rate of new energy vehicle market demand will gradually slow down, and at the same time, with the cancellation of the national subsidy policy for new energy vehicles, the competition in the new energy vehicle industry has entered the red sea stage, and there is a certain uncertainty in the future industry competition pattern, and there are risks such as smart sales falling short of expectations.

Tianqi Lithium said that as the end of the lithium battery industry chain and the window closest to the demand side, this investment is expected to have a positive impact on the company's future business development from the strategic direction of the company's long-term development.

Tianqi Lithium is not the only lithium salt leader involved in electric vehicles.

In October 2022, GAC Aion once again increased its capital and shares by way of public listing on the Guangzhou Equity Exchange to achieve Series A financing. Aion's total financing exceeded 18 billion yuan, and Ganfeng Lithium (002460.SZ), Hanrui Cobalt (300618.SZ) and other companies invested in the company.

As of the close of trading on September 14, Tianqi Lithium's share price closed at 56.85 yuan, down 1.56%, with a market value of 93.303 billion yuan.