News

  • BYD reports stronger Q3 growth than competitors

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    ShenzhenPress

    ShenzhenPress (Shenzhen)—BYD reported growth a gross margin of 22.75% in the third quarter of 2022. This is significantly stronger than its competition, including Changan (17.4%), SAIC (9.6%), GAC (4.6%), and Huawei-backed Seres (-57.3%).

    Major automakers are struggling with rising lithium prices and price war. Lithium carbonate prices have jumped nearly 80% since the start of the year, crossing the threshold of RMB 500,000 (USD 68,775) on September 13.

    The Chinese government will phase out EV purchase subsidies end of the year. This could see the price war intensify as experts predict price reductions as the automakers fight for market share, a move that would further impact short-term profitability.

    Shenzhen-based BYD reached an estimated RMB 10,000 profit per unit sold in the third quarter this year, almost double of the estimated RMB 6,400 in the second quarter.

    Net profits of RMB 5.7 billion in the third quarter is a 350% year-on-year increase compared to 2021. In comparison, Tesla reported USD 3.3 billion in net income in the same quarter.

    BYD posted sales of RMB 117 billion (USD 16.1 billion) for the third quarter, a 116% year-on-year increase compared to 2021.

    Source: TechNode

  • Shenzhen is China’s robotaxi capital as DeepRoute.ai starts public trials

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    ShenzhenPress

    Shenzhen News (Shenzhen)—DeepRoute.ai on Monday launched its robotaxi service trial in Shenzhen with a fleet of 20 self-driving taxis. The cabs will be monitored by safety drivers and will start to take passengers around the central business district of Futian.

    The company said in a statement that it has received a permit to run trials the city, making it the first officially robotaxi program open to public in Shenzhen. The service is free of charge and is open to adult passengers who have applied for an invitation code. The robotaxis will run between 100 designated pick-up and drop-off locations, with the routes covering 200 kilometres of roads in the Futian district.

    Shenzhen has become as China’s robotaxi capital with a growing fleet of autonomous driving vehicles and over 800 startups in the city. The industry is supported by the government that is drafting regulations for self-driving cars.

    The regulations are expected to cover road testing, operation permits, accidents, traffic violations, and legal lability.

    Autonomous vehicle startup AutoX announced in January 2021 its launch of self-driving robotaxis trial to the public in the Pingshan district. However, the Shenzhen government said it had not granted a permit to AutoX.

    Search giant Baidu launched a public robotaxi service in Beijing last year, and became China’s first paid self-driving taxi service in May in an enclosed venue for the 2022 Winter Olympics. The service is not available in the public streets of Beijing.

    DeepRoute.ai is an international, full stack, Level 4 self-driving solution provider with its China headquarters in Shenzhen, and its US headquarters in Fremont, California.

  • Naiyuki poised for US$657 million Hong Kong IPO

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    ShenzhenPress

    Shenzhen News (Shenzhen)—Naiyuki Holdings Limited is seeking to raise HK$5.1 billion (US$657 million) from an initial public offering in Hong Kong.

    The Shenzhen-based company is selling 257 million new shares at HK$17.20 to HK$19.80 ($2.22 to $2.55) apiece, according to its prospectus filed with the Hong Kong Stock exchange. The company plans to price the offering on 23 March, and then list on the exchange on 30 June.

    According to the filing, 10% of the shares would be sold in Hong Kong and 90% globally. The company has an option to sell as much as 15% more shares in oversubscription. The share sale attracts five cornerstone investors agreeing to subscribe a total of US$155 million in stock or 25% of the offering, based on the mid-point of the price range. They are UBS Global Asset Management, China Universal Asset Management Co Ltd, GF Fund Management, China Southern Asset Management Co Ltd and CCB International (Holdings) Ltd.

    JPMorgan, CMB International Capital Corp and Huatai International Financial Holdings Ltd are co-sponsors of the deal.

    The company plans to use 70% of the proceeds to open new stores in the next three years, 10% to enhance technical capabilities such as digitisation of operations, 10% to enhance supply chain and channel building capabilities, and the rest for working capital and general business purposes. The company plans to open 650 new stores by 2022, more than doubling its 556 outlets in 70 Chinese cities as of the end of May, according to the prospectus.

    Founded in 2015, Naiyuki has more than 422 stores across 51 cities in China. It is the first unicorn in China’s tea chain sector. It generated revenue of CN¥3 billion (US$465 million) and a net loss of CN¥203 million (US$31.5 million) in 2020.

    The company says it accounts for 18.9% of China’s premium freshly made tea beverage market, ranking second behind HeyTea, which is reportedly seeking to raise US$400 million to US$500 million in an IPO in Hong Kong before the end of 2021.

    Naiyuki raised a Series C funding of over US$100 million in December to bring the company’s value to nearly US$2 billion.

  • HAI ROBOTICS named Best Intralogistics in IFOY Award 2021

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    ShenzhenPress

    Shenzhen News (Shenzhen)–HAI ROBOTICS, the pioneer in autonomous case-handling robotic systems (ACR systems) and Shenzhen-based information and communication technology (ICT) powerhouse in China, has received two “Best Intralogistics” certificates from the world-renowned Intralogistics and Forklift Truck of the Year (IFOY) Award 2021 for its HAIPICK ACR solutions.

    The IFOY Award is largest and toughest intralogistics tests in the world, and is one of the most significant awards in the material handling industry worldwide. The Award honours the year’s best products and solutions.

    The HAIPICK A42T is the world’s first telescopic lift autonomous case-handling robot (ACR), enabling intelligent “goods-to-person” order picking and covering an ultra-wide picking range from 0.25 metres to 6.5 metres. The HAIPICK A42N is the world’s first autonomous carton-picking ACR to enable mixed picking of cartons and totes of different sizes.

    HAI ROBOTICS has been developing AI-powered ACR systems since 2015 and has been a leader in the field with best-in-class intelligent goods-to-person solution and smart in-plant logistics solution. By using the HAIPICK systems, customers can realize warehouse automation transformation in a week, increase storage density by 80%-130%, and improve operational efficiency by 3-4 times compared to manual operations.

    In March 2021, HAI ROBOTICS secured its series B+ round funding of nearly $15 million led by 5Y Capital, with participation from existing investors Source Code Capital and Walden International. The funding does not only confirm, from the investors’ perspective, the success and leading position of the ACR pioneer, but also fuels the company’s R&D, operational capabilities and business expansion.

  • Huawei gains mobile payments license by acquiring Xunlian

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    ShenzhenPress

    Shenzhen News (Shenzhen)—Shenzhen-based tech giant Huawei has acquired a mobile payments license in China after buying Shenzhen Xunlian Zhifu Network from Shanghai Wo Rui Ou Information Technology Co, Ltd.

    Founded by Shenzhen-based telco giant ZTE, Xunlian was spun-off into a standalone company. It was licensed to provide payment services via its website or mobile phone nationwide through its Xunlian Zhipay service. Shanghai Wo Rui Ou purchased Xunlian from ZTE for RMB 382.5 million in August 2016.

    Huawei has been in the mobile payment sector for years. Launched in 2016, its Huawei Pay app allows Huawei phone owners to pay for goods online and offline. The app uses near-field communication, a technology that is not widely used in China.

    Without a mobile payment license, Huawei has previously been using UnionPay’s mobile payment service.

    A Huawei spokesperson said, “Huawei made this acquisition with the goal of offering a wider range of secure, easy-to-use smart services to enrich people’s digital lives in all possible scenarios.”

  • Fintech Linklogis to file IPO for $1.1 billion

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    ShenzhenPress

    Shenzhen News (Shenzhen)—Shenzhen-based fintech Linklogis is looking to raise HK$8.28 billion ($1.1 billion) from an initial public offering in Hong Kong. Linklogis provides tech solutions for supply chain financing in China. The company is backed by Tencent and Standard Chartered Bank, and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC.

    Linklogis is selling 452.9 million shares at HK$16.28 to HK$18.28 ($2.10 to $2.35) apiece, Bloomberg reports. The company plans to price the offering on 31 March, and then list on the exchange on 9 April.

    According to the filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday, the share sale attracts six cornerstone investors agreeing to subscribe a total of $365 million in stock. BlackRock Inc and Fidelity will each buy $100 million in shares. Janus Henderson Funds, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, and Sequoia Capital China will each buy $50 million, while Singapore’s EDB Investments will buy $15 million.

    Goldman Sachs Group In. and China International Capital Corp are joint sponsors of the deal.

  • Vaping firm RELX raises $1.4 billion in IPO

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    ShenzhenPress

    Shenzhen News (Shenzhen)—Shenzhen e-cigarette maker RELX Technology Inc. has raised $1.4 billion in a US initial public offering, giving the company a market value of about $46 billion.

    The company, backed by Sequoia Capital China, sold 116.5 million shares for $12 apiece in its trading debut. Citigroup Inc and China Renaissance Holdings Ltd led the IPO that saw the share price jump 146%.

    RELX, founded in 2018, is China’s largest e-cigarette maker with 62.6% of the country’s market. The vaping industry has boomed in China despite increased regulations amid concerns about its potential health effects. Online sales of e-cigarettes is banned in China.

    The country is the world’s largest potential vaping market, with an estimated 286.7 million adult smokers in 2019. Despite this, vaping products have a 1.2% market penetration rate, compared to 32.4% in the US.

    Another Shenzhen-based e-cigarette company, Smoore International Holdings Ltd, listed in Hong Kong last year and has gained over 500% from its offer price.

  • Naiyuki raised US$100 million Series C funding

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    ShenzhenPress

    Shenzhen News (Shenzhen)—Shenzhen Pindao Restaurant Management, owner of tea chain Nayuki, has completed a Series C funding around of over US$100 million to bring the company value at almost US$2 billion.

    The latest funding round is said to be led by private equity firm PAG with Jack Ma’s Yunfeng Capital among the investors.

    Nayuki is said to be considering an IPO in Hong Kong, after the coronavirus pandemic stalled its plans following is reported filing of an offering in the US last February. This comes as Heytea, another major tea chain in China, is reported to be planning for an IPO in Hong Kong in 2021.

    The company will invest the funds on product research and supply chain digitalisation.

    Founded in 2015, Shenzhen-based Naiyuki has more than 350 stores across 51 cities in China. It is the first unicorn in China’s tea chain sector.

  • Xiaomi and Ximalaya announce strategic partnership

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    ShenzhenPress

    Shenzhen News (Shenzhen)—Xiaomi and Ximalaya FM today announced a strategic partnership to cooperate in areas including podcasts, smart hardware and others. They also launched the “Ximalaya X Redmi XiaoAI Speaker Play” co-branded speaker. Users can easily listen go Xiamalya stations with their XiaoAI speakers. Both companies are exploring a podcast subscription service.

    Once the partnership depends, Ximalaya will leverage on the Xiaomi AIoT ecosystem to distribute its content to Xiaomi users at home, in cars, and other application cases.

    Ximalaya licenses its content to Xiaomi

    The partnership brings the large amount of quality Ximalaya content to the sizeable Xiaomi user base. Ximalaya is making a large amount of content available to Xiaomi. Some popular family content include Peppa Pig, Ultraman, Super Wings, and Black Cat Detective. Other genres include entertainment, culture, and history. Radio drama of The Three-Body Problem, and Soul Lands and other exclusive content are also available on XiaoAI speakers.

    Over a hundred million Xiaomi users enjoy Ximalaya content, with over 30 million Xiaomi users tuning in to Ximalaya podcasts each month. Ximalaya has existing partnership with Xiaomi’s XiaoAI speaker, Xiaomi Music, Xiaomi Radio, and other products. By providing Ximalaya accounts access to XiaoAi Speaker, playback progress across can sync across the whole XiaoAI produce range in realtime, allowing the devices to be synced across different usage applications. Users can access Ximalaya content easily from XiaoAI Speaker app, allowing them quick access to select their favourite content.

    Market statistics indicate that the sale of XiaoAI Speakers exceeded 22 million units since its launch three years ago, and accumulated 31.9 billion wake commands. It ranked first for both revenue and sales volume for the first half of 2020. Besides controlling Xiaomi IoT devices, XiaoAI Speaker can also control close to 100 other IoT devices.

    Virtual AI assistant XiaoAI has over 61.7 billion wake commands with over 78.4 million active users each month. There are 228 million activated XiaoAI devices so far. The Xiaomi AIoT platform leads the industry with over 289 million connected devices, excluding phones and laptops.

    Ximalaya ponders Xiaomi subscription service to create a new AIoT experience

    As the leading podcast platform in China, Ximalaya provides high quality content to its 600 million users. It has attracted over 10 million popular podcast creators, including Yu Qiuyu, Kang Zheng, Guo Degang, and Madong. Ximalaya has created a podcast ecosystem around audio content.

    Ximalaya has a total traffic of 329 million as of October 2020. The company has remained steadfast in building a smart ecosystem, increasing its deployment in the automotive, smart home, smart speaker, wearables, and other hardware. Ximalaya’s goal is to become the pivotal system bridging smartphones with a wider range of convenient usage through its expansion in smart hardware.

    With this partnership in place, Ximalaya will explore building long form audio content membership service with Xiaomi for XiaoAI Speaker. Xiaomi Youpin products cater to a wide range applications. Likewise, Xiamalaya content will reach Xiaomi users at home, in cars, and other application cases.

    Using big data, Xiamalaya will improve the play-on-demand experience of XiaoAi Speaker, increasing the accuracy of XiaoAI’s on-demand audio content in different scenes, and thus allowing easy seamless switching between different devices.

  • MEG to purchase 2,000 custom BYD D1 electric cars

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    ShenzhenPress

    Shenzhen News (Shenzhen)—Ideanomics announced its Mobile Energy Group (MEG) signing an agreement with Meihao Chuxing, the joint venture between BYD and Didi, to purchase 2,000 BYD D1 cars.

    Didi Chuxing is deploying and promoting this ride hailing car in many cities across China. Users can hail this custom car from the Didi Chuxing app.

    Ideanomics CEO Alf Poor said, “D1 is a model of electric ride hailing car that received a lot of design scrutiny. It combines the latest designs and technology to provide a great ride experience for both the driver and passenger. We are delighted to partner with Meihao Chuxing to promote the D1.”

    He added, “With the support of practical government funding, the widespread adoption of electric cars in China proves the value of public and private partnership, and the scale of the global challenge. We hope to develop this type of partnerships and work with our rental and ride hailing clients to roll out more innovative car models like the D1.”

    Meihao Chuxing (Hangzhou) Auto Technology Co, Ltd was established in 2019. BYD holds the controlling stake in the company. Lanched in November 2020, BYD D1 is the first electric ride hailing car jointly designed by BYD and Didi Chuxing. The car is equipped with L2 driver assistant system and is connected to the fleet management system. This system helps operators of large car fleets to track and optimise the operating conditions of their cars, provides realtime energy management, and comes with many other functions for safety and comfort. The D1 comes with the latest blade lithium ferrophosphate battery. It has a range of 418 km and a top speed of 130 km/h.