As Shanghai Stock Exchange launched the Sci-Tech Innovation Board on June 13, Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Singulato expressed its plan to be listed, which may indicate its financing dilemma.
July 9, Zhao Qiang (赵强), vice president of Singulato, affirmed that Singulato was about to be listed on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board soon. Earlier in April 2019, Shen Haiyin (沈海寅), co-founder and CEO of Singulato, announced the schedule of getting on this new board of Shanghai Stock Exchange by the end of this year.
The Sci-Tech Innovation Board (STAR Market) was first put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping (习近平) in the conference of China International Import Expo hosted on November 5 in 2018. Established within the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the "Chinese Nasdaq" trading platform is independent from the existing main board and features in deep integration of capital market and technological innovation. First batch of companies will be listed on July 22.
Singulato's pursuing being listed on the new platform might reveal severe financing dilemma in Chinese electric vehicle market. Reuters reported in June that until mid-June Chinese EV manufacturers had only raised USD 783.1 million in 2019, whereas the amount of financing for the same period in 2018 was USD 6 billion, decreasing by 87%.
Even worse, as some EV manufacturers are criticized for over-relying on government funds, Chinese government has reduced subsidies to EV makers and raised quality standards of EV making. So far, EV manufacturers might be going through the toughest time in recent years and only a few of them will survive in the capital winter, according to Reuters.
Nonetheless, with the STAR Market launched, fundraising may be no longer a problem for some EV manufacturers. The STAR Market is featured with long investment period and high-stake as companies with advanced technology and innovation are permitted to go public, even though they are not profitable. Moreover, it can be observed from companies who submitted their listing applications that P/E ratio is relatively high on average, which reflects positive attitudes of investors towards the STAR Market.
The Sci-Tech Innovation Board is absolutely an opportunity for EV manufacturers who needs to go through fundraising trouble, however, it needs strict censorship for companies to be listed. "Although Singulato has been selected as one of the first batch of listing companies, the censoring process is still being conducted," said Zhao Qiang (赵强).
Singulato is a Chinese new energy vehicle manufacturer focusing on sedan producing. In addition to car making, it also covers developing intelligent driving system, V2X services based on big data and cloud computing, and some other innovative investment.