Chinese EV Battery Maker REPT to Go Public Overseas

REPT, a Chinese electric vehicle battery manufacturer backed by leading nickel and stainless steel producer Tsingshan Holding Group, has submitted an application for an overseas public listing, according to the official website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Tsingshan Holding Group, which is one of the world’s top 500 companies, is known as the “Nickel King” in China.

Founded in 2017, REPT focuses on providing high-quality solutions for new energy vehicle power and smart power energy storage. Its main products are square aluminum-shell blade lithium iron phosphate batteries and ternary batteries, which are aimed at applications in passenger cars, commercial vehicles, construction machinery and general energy storage.

Before the launch of its overseas listing plan, REPT completed financing totaling 2.2 billion yuan ($315 million) in February this year, with automaker SAIC serving as the lead investor. The company’s sales revenue reached 2.4 billion yuan last year.

In 2021 alone, REPT successively invested and built production bases in Foshan, Guangdong Province and Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. The project invested in by REPT in Wenzhou will be completed in 2026 and put into full production in 2027, with a planned production capacity of 100GWh and a planned investment of about 30 billion yuan. REPT has received various orders from automaker SAIC and Dongfeng Nissan, new material maker GEM, Kelu Electronics and so on.

In the energy storage sector, REPT has successively developed 50Ah, 72Ah, 100Ah, 150Ah, 205Ah, 230Ah and 280Ah series products, covering the needs of scale energy storage, industrial and commercial energy storage and household energy storage. In addition, the company’s new large-scale energy storage product will be launched in the second quarter of 2023.

Cao Hui, chairman of REPT, revealed in September this year that the company’s lithium battery capacity in 2022 is 32 GWh. The company plans to realize 200 GWh lithium battery capacity in 2026, and establish four production bases in China and two overseas production bases. It also set the goal of becoming one of the top four global battery firms, reaching a market share of 10% in 2025.

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According to the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, in 2021, the shipments of REPT’s energy storage batteries ranked in the top three. In June 2022, the loading capacity of REPT’s lithium iron phosphate power battery ranked in the top four. In the first 10 months of 2022, REPT ranked 10th in terms of loading capacity of power battery enterprises in China.

However, the market share of REPT now stands at only 2.2%. In fact, other power battery companies such as Gotion High-Tech, Sunwoda, SVOLT and EVE Energy have market shares of below 5%. Industry leader CATL, however, enjoys a market share of 46.79%.

With REPT launching an IPO plan, the top 10 enterprises with the largest installed power battery capacity in China will turn to capital markets soon. CALB has already listed in Hong Kong, and SVOLT has applied for an IPO in Shanghai.