Anker plans to raise 1.1 billion yuan to do big things!

Following the IPO fundraising in 2020, Anker Innovations plans to raise funds for the second time in the near future.

After the first fundraising, Anker Innovations tried to achieve "flying" by expanding more sub-categories , but the "shallow sea strategy" failed and the company cut 10 product lines. This time the company plans to raise nearly 1.1 billion yuan to strengthen its core business and invest heavily in portable and household energy storage products. Is this big move by Anker Innovations to concentrate its advantages and funds stable?

Anker plans to raise 1.1 billion

Anker Innovations recently announced that it plans to issue no more than 11,048,200 convertible corporate bonds to unspecified objects , raising no more than 1.105 billion yuan. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange has reviewed and approved the company's application to issue convertible corporate bonds to unspecified objects.

This is the second time that Anker Innovations has raised funds since its listing. Previously, the company raised 2.719 billion yuan in its IPO. After this round of fundraising, Anker Innovations aims to further enhance the company's competitiveness and financial strength, optimize its financial structure, reduce operating risks, and promote the company's sustainable and high-quality development.

Anker Innovations said that the net proceeds from this round of fundraising will be invested in four projects and to supplement working capital.

It plans to invest 201 million yuan of raised funds in the research and development and industrialization of portable and household energy storage products ;

206 million yuan will be used for the research and development and industrialization of new-generation intelligent hardware products;

140 million yuan for intelligent warehouse upgrade projects;

227 million yuan for the full-link digital operation center project;

The remaining 331 million yuan will be used to supplement working capital.

Let’s talk about Anker Innovations’ portable and household energy storage products . The total investment in the research and development and industrialization of the project is 248 million yuan. It plans to carry out forward-looking and applied research and development of new technologies and new products in the field of portable and household energy storage, accelerate product development, continuously enrich the company’s energy storage product matrix, realize the iterative upgrade of related products and technologies, and provide momentum for the sustainable development of the company’s energy storage business.

It is understood that household energy storage products are mainly used in home scenarios, and their application areas include self-generated household electricity, regulating the price difference between peak and valley electricity, and providing emergency power supply for high-power electrical appliances during emergency disaster preparedness. Specific product types include balcony photovoltaic energy storage products with low installation thresholds, such as photovoltaic modules located on the balcony; and household photovoltaic energy storage products with relatively high installation thresholds, such as photovoltaic modules located on the roof.

Portable energy storage products are mainly used in outdoor scenarios, including outdoor travel, providing emergency power supply for small and medium-power electrical appliances during emergency disaster recovery, etc., and are mainly sold through online channels.

Why portable and household energy storage products ?

Portable and household energy storage products are charging energy storage products, one of the company's three core categories. Why is this type of product worthy of Anker Innovations' large investment?

First, the revenue is high and the gross profit is high. Looking at Anker Innovations' revenue data, in the first half of 2024, Anker Innovations' charging energy storage products achieved revenue of 4.975 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 42.81%, accounting for 51.56% of total revenue, the highest revenue share among the three core categories. From 2021 to 2023, the revenue share of this type of product also reached nearly 50%.

From 2021 to the first half of 2024, the gross profit margins of Anker Innovations' charging energy storage products were 37.71%, 41.86%, 42.26% and 42.98%, respectively, showing an overall upward trend.

Anker Innovations began to develop household energy storage products in 2022 and began to realize revenue in the first quarter of 2023. In 2023 and the first half of 2024 , the revenue of household energy storage products was RMB 104.6067 million and RMB 64.4544 million, accounting for 0.60% and 0.67% of the main business revenue in the current period .

The layout of portable energy storage products should be started earlier. During the reporting period from 2021 to the first half of 2024 , Anker Innovations' revenue from portable energy storage products was RMB 133.8329 million, RMB 483.4274 million, RMB 958.6353 million and RMB 857.9407 million, respectively, accounting for 1.07%, 3.43%, 5.50% and 8.90% of the main business income in the current period.

Secondly, the market prospects are broad. Last year, a sub-category of Anker Innovations, balcony energy storage products, became very popular and quickly became the first in the sub-category after being launched. Anker Innovations founder Yang Meng once mentioned that balcony energy storage is more fixed than mobile energy storage plus solar panels, which can continuously save electricity bills for users. It is also cheaper and more flexible than household energy storage that costs $10,000 to install at home. Users can DIY install it themselves, which is an intermediate form.

An important part of Anker Innovations' balcony energy storage breaking through the siege is that its product line returns to the essential needs of consumers. They dare to define the balcony energy storage products that they believe best meet the needs, and they produce the products under the extreme project cycle, extreme quality and cost .

Finally, continue to make money. It is understood that after the above-mentioned project enters the stable operation period, it is expected to achieve an annual revenue of 2.35 billion yuan, an annual total profit of 259 million yuan, an internal rate of return (after tax) of 25.79% and a static investment payback period (including construction period) of 6.15 years. The project is expected to have good benefits.

The road to multi-category expansion failed

Anker Innovations' position in charging and energy storage products is obvious to all, and the company has invested a lot of the funds raised in this round in core categories. Between digging deep into core categories or expanding into multiple categories, the company has explored the path of subsequent development by using the pitfalls it has encountered.

In August 2020, Anker Innovations was listed on the ChiNext. In its initial public offering, Anker Innovations raised a total of 2.719 billion yuan , and the company's revenue that year also reached nearly 10 billion yuan .

After becoming wealthy, Anker Innovations proposed a "shallow sea strategy" - trying to become a more important company by expanding into more subdivided categories. In the following two years, Anker expanded from 1,600 to 4,000 people, and established a total of 27 product teams including energy storage, lawn mowing robots, and 3D printing.

This time, Ideal's road to multi-category expansion was not smooth. After two years of real practice, this road was completely blocked.

Many of Anker Innovations' product lines have encountered challenges, such as energy storage and 3D printing. These industries have unicorns, and the company's newly established team has no confidence in defeating unicorns. Yang Meng also mentioned this point. When the company is engaged in a new category with unicorns, the unicorns' products may significantly surpass ours, and their channel capabilities are not much worse than ours. At this time, it is not easy to win.

During the two years of the shallow sea strategy, Anker Innovations added 27 product lines under its five business units. As the number of sub-categories increased, many emerging categories were intentionally or unintentionally ignored by the company due to their small scale, and the emerging categories were destined to fail.

In the second half of 2022 , Anker Innovations made a painful decision and successively cut off 10 product teams that "seemed unbeatable". In 2023 , the company's annual revenue from 17 categories was 17.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of about 23%, and net profit was about 72% year-on-year. In the first three quarters of this year , Anker Innovations achieved operating income of 16.45 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 39.56%, ranking first in the revenue list of listed cross-border e-commerce companies.

This year, Anker Innovations has launched new products in portable energy storage and household energy storage, and the progress is good. The company has concentrated resources and funds to strengthen its core categories, which is accumulating momentum for continued revenue growth.

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