Leading lithium battery material company Putailai plans secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange: the actual controller's share pledge ratio is nearly 45%, and the core subsidiary's spin-off reshapes valuation logic

Every reporter｜Cai Ding Every editor｜Chen Junjie

According to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange official website, A-share lithium battery materials leader Putailai (SH603659) submitted its secondary listing application documents to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on March 16 (Monday), with China International Capital Corporation as the sole sponsor.

As a leading upstream enterprise in the new energy battery industry chain, Putailai’s layout on the “A+H” platform has attracted significant attention. A reporter from “Daily Economic News” (hereinafter referred to as “the reporter”) has reviewed its Hong Kong stock prospectus (draft version, hereinafter the same) and concurrent announcements, finding that behind its strategic layout for overseas expansion, the company’s fundamentals are facing challenges such as the decline in the price of anode materials, high inventory levels, and performance volatility. A series of capital and financial operations just before its fundraising in Hong Kong also show significant data changes.

Specifically, just before the submission, a cash dividend of up to 484 million yuan (RMB, the same below) and the fact that the actual controller has pledged over 40% of its shares are intertwined. The core subsidiary that contributes nearly 30% of revenue plans to spin off and list independently, putting pressure on the integrity of H-share assets. Additionally, the significant increase in the upper limit of related party purchases with other assets under the same actual controller constitutes key factors that the market needs to consider during Putailai’s listing process.

Before submitting, Putailai launched a relatively large cash dividend plan in the A-share market— the company’s annual report for 2025 released earlier this month shows that it plans to distribute a cash dividend of 2.3 yuan per 10 shares to all shareholders.

Data from the prospectus shows that in March 2026, Putailai declared a final dividend of 484.39 million yuan for the year ending December 31, 2025, which is expected to be paid before its H-share listing. Based on static calculations excluding repurchased shares, this total dividend accounts for 20.46% of Putailai’s net profit attributable to the parent company for the year 2025.

Image source: Putailai prospectus

Combining public disclosure data from the A-share market, Putailai’s actual controller, Liang Feng, and his concerted actors (Ningbo Shengyue and Ningbo Kuaneng, etc.) collectively control about 45.01% of the voting rights in the company. According to Putailai’s announcement on December 12, 2025, Liang Feng holds nearly 45% of the shares (approximately 239 million shares), which are currently pledged.

Image source: Putailai announcement

On one hand, the actual controller faces a high pledge ratio; on the other hand, the company is distributing dividends just before filing. The connection between these two factors has triggered market attention regarding the liquidity status of the actual controller.

In fact, Putailai’s financial leverage is also under certain pressure. The prospectus shows that as of the end of 2025, the total amount of interest-bearing bank loans and other borrowings reached 10.414 billion yuan, of which short-term borrowings due within a year amount to 6.915 billion yuan, presenting a risk of maturity mismatch between short-term debts and long-term investments.

Image source: Putailai prospectus

In addition to cash flow, Putailai’s operations regarding the integrity of its core business structure and supply chain independence also constitute important considerations.

The reporter noticed that just before submitting to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on March 5, Putailai also announced that its holding subsidiary Jiangsu Jiatuo New Energy Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Jiatuo Intelligent”) plans to publicly issue shares to unspecified qualified investors and list on the Beijing Stock Exchange. This decision for a spin-off listing directly changes the expected structure of the asset package for Putailai’s Hong Kong listing.

The prospectus shows that Putailai positions itself as a leading provider of comprehensive solutions in the upstream new energy battery industry chain, with its core competitiveness lying in the “materials plus equipment” model. However, the spin-off of Jiatuo Intelligent, as the core carrier of the company’s automation equipment business, undoubtedly represents a direct extraction from this model. From a financial contribution perspective, Jiangsu Jiatuo holds a significant position within the Putailai system. As of the end of 2025, Jiatuo Intelligent’s total assets amounted to approximately 10.04 billion yuan, accounting for 21.7% of Putailai Group’s total assets; in 2025, Jiatuo Intelligent achieved revenue of approximately 4.515 billion yuan, accounting for 28.84% of Putailai Group’s total revenue of 15.656 billion yuan during the same period.

Image source: Putailai prospectus

Putailai has specifically applied for an exemption regarding the application guidance of item 15 of the Hong Kong listing rules, explaining that there will be a clear distinction between the group and the spun-off group, and the spin-off of Jiangsu Jiatuo will not have a significant adverse impact on the operations of the remaining business of the group.

The reporter also noted that along with the asset spin-off, there has been a series of operations regarding related party transactions by Putailai.

On October 17, 2024, Ribo Fashion, which focuses on women’s clothing, announced a major asset restructuring suspension, stating that it is planning to acquire the controlling stake in Sichuan Yindile Material Technology Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Yindile”). The subsequent transaction plan shows that Ribo Fashion intends to acquire 71% of Yindile’s shares for a transaction price of 1.42 billion yuan, aiming to achieve a cross-industry transformation into the new energy materials field. In Yindile’s shareholding structure, Putailai holds 26% of the company’s shares, and both companies share Liang Feng as their common actual controller. This cross-industry acquisition led by the same actual controller gives Putailai and Yindile’s daily business interactions a high degree of related party transaction attributes.

Financial data show that Putailai has long been an important customer of Yindile, providing a large number of purchase orders. According to the prospectus, from 2023 to 2025, the actual transaction amounts for raw material purchases paid by Putailai to Sichuan Yindile and its subsidiaries were 44.378 million yuan, 43.312 million yuan, and 47.519 million yuan, respectively.

Image source: Putailai prospectus

However, for the financial forecast for the 2026 fiscal year, the prospectus has significantly raised the upper limit for related party transactions. Putailai clearly expects that the annual transaction amount for purchasing raw materials from Yindile and its subsidiaries in 2026 will not exceed 90 million yuan, nearly doubling compared to the previous three years.

Image source: Putailai prospectus

The significant increase in this related party procurement limit coincides with the restructuring process of Ribo Fashion’s acquisition of 71% of Yindile for 1.42 billion yuan. Objectively speaking, as an industry leader, Putailai’s massive procurement capacity directly supports Yindile’s revenue and financial performance. At the time of Ribo Fashion’s high-premium acquisition of Yindile, Putailai’s substantial increase in the related procurement limit objectively provides direct financial support for Yindile’s revenue performance.

The fluctuations in Putailai’s fundamentals and its future strategic direction are also worth noting.

In terms of performance, from 2023 to 2025, the company’s revenues were 15.293 billion yuan, 13.399 billion yuan, and 15.656 billion yuan, respectively. During the same period, the company’s annual net profits were 2.153 billion yuan, 1.387 billion yuan, and 2.614 billion yuan, respectively. It can be seen that the company experienced a “double decline” in revenue and net profit in 2024, and then achieved recovery in 2025.

Image source: Putailai prospectus

This performance fluctuation reflects the fierce competition in China’s new energy battery materials market. Under the influence of downstream capacity oversupply, one of Putailai’s core products, anode materials, has faced downward pressure on average selling prices. For instance, the average selling price of the company’s anode materials dropped sharply from 40.5 yuan/kg in 2023 to 30.2 yuan/kg in 2024, and further declined to 24.5 yuan/kg in 2025. The price decline directly dragged down the company’s overall profitability in 2024.

Image source: Putailai prospectus

However, thanks to the strong growth in sales of coated separators, membrane materials, and functional materials, the gross margin of the company’s key new energy battery materials recovered from 23.9% in 2024 to 34.2% in 2025, driving the group’s overall gross margin to rebound to 29.7% in 2025.

Image source: Putailai prospectus

However, by the end of 2025, Putailai’s inventory balance reached 8.905 billion yuan, further increasing from 8.364 billion yuan at the end of 2024. In the rapidly evolving new energy sector, high inventory levels not only occupy working capital but also pose a risk of inventory impairment.

Image source: Putailai prospectus

Against this backdrop, Putailai’s fundraising in Hong Kong still maintains an expansion trend. The prospectus reveals that the net proceeds from the IPO will primarily be used to enhance production capacity, including the construction of a new facility in Malaysia with an annual capacity of 50,000 tons for anode materials and new separator base film production facilities in Sichuan, as well as increased R&D investment in cutting-edge technologies such as new electrolyte materials for solid-state batteries.

In a context where the entire industry is generally facing capacity pressure, Putailai’s choice to leverage the H-share platform for expansion reflects its layout in overseas incremental markets. As the progress of the Hong Kong IPO advances, balancing pre-submission dividends with debt structure, the impact of the core subsidiary spin-off, and fierce industry competition will all be core issues that Putailai needs to address in the capital market.

On related issues, at noon on March 17, the reporter sent an interview request to Putailai’s investor relations department and the email shown on its official website, but as of the time of publication, no response has been received from the company.

Cover image source: Every media resource library