(Yicai Global) June 8 — Eve Energy’s stock price surged after the Chinese battery giant said it had secured CNY9 billion (USD1.3 billion) in a private placement of shares to finance two capacity expansion projects, plus two other new investment plans worth as much as CNY6 billion.
Shares of Eve Energy [SHE: 300014] ended 7.9 percent up today at CNY96.97 (USD14.49), after earlier surging by as much as 9 percent, the most since February.
The electric vehicle battery maker plans to issue about 142.6 million new shares to its actual controller Liu Jincheng and his wife at CNY63.11 apiece, a roughly 30 percent discount on yesterday’s closing price, the Huizhou-based company said in a statement yesterday. Their stake will climb to 39.9 percent from 35.4 percent.
Eve Energy plans to use the funds to build two new power battery plants in Jingmen in China’s central Hubei province. It will also allocate CNY3.4 billion to support a passenger vehicle battery project with an annual capacity of 20 gigawatt-hours, and will earmark CNY2.6 billion to finance its square lithium iron phosphate battery project in the same location with an expected capacity of 20 GWh.
The remaining CNY3 billion will be used to replenish working capital.
The two new projects are part of Eve Energy’s ambitious capacity expansion plan in Jingmen. Last November, the firm announced that it would invest CNY30.5 billion (USD4.6 billion) to boost annual power battery capacity in Jingmen by more than five times to 152.6 GWh.
Eve Energy also said yesterday that it will spend CNY3 billion building an energy storage business headquarters and research institute in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, to develop new energy power pack technologies including lithium and fuel cell batteries, as well as to develop power systems design technology.
The tech behemoth is also eyeing southwestern China. Eve Energy said yesterday that it will set up a power battery plant in Qujing in Yunnan province. It announced plans for another factory in nearby Yuxi last month. Both plants will have an annual capacity of 10 GWh and cost CNY3 billion each.
Editor: Emmi Laine