[ad_1]
Sichuan “Giant of the lithium industry” 12 billion loans or default, the royal driver family has fallen from the list of rich
Source: Time Finance
Xiangyu original
Sequel to a snake swallowing an elephant?
Recently,Tianqi LithiumCo., Ltd. (hereinafter “Tianqi Lithium Industry”) issued the “Progress Announcement of Significant Risk Events”, stating that in accordance with theCITIC BankIn the relevant agreement signed by the leading M&A loan syndicate, the $ 1.884 billion (equivalent to RMB 12.4 billion) of the M&A loan will expire at the end of November 2020, representing 179, 35% of the company’s most recent audited net assets. Although the company has formally submitted a request to adjust the loan term structure to the union, it is currently under review. There is a possibility that the loan cannot be successfully extended when the loan expires and the business is unable to repay in full and on time, resulting in default.
Since November, Tianqi Lithium’s share price has risen 24.14%, but controlling shareholders have frequently reduced their stakes. According to statistics from China Business News, Chengdu Tianqi Industry (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “Tianqi Group”), the majority shareholder of Tianqi Lithium Industry, reduced its holdings from 9.716792 shares on 3, 4, 5 , November 6 and 9. , A total of 226 million yuan in cash in a single month. Since the second half of the year, Tianqi Group has reduced its holdings of company shares by a total of 4.3455% through centralized tenders and block transactions, with a total cash of 1.43 billion yuan.
At the same time, Tianqi Lithium management is also reducing its stake in the company’s shares. In October this year, Tianqi Lithium announced the reduction plan of Zou Jun, chief financial officer and Li Bo, secretary of the board of directors. The two plan to reduce their stakes by 376,500 shares, which represents 0.0255% of the company’s total share capital. So far, Li Bo has completed the reduction. .
In this regard, a person from the Office of the Tianqi Lithium Secretary told Time Finance that the previous announcement revealed that a portion of the funds used by the controlling shareholder to reduce stakes was used to finance publicly traded companies. The downsizing of company shares by executives is their personal behavior and personal financing needs.
According to public information, Tianqi Lithium was established in 2004 and is one of the top five suppliers of lithium ore in the world. Its main activity includes the research and development, production and sale of lithium ore and lithium chemicals, lithium carbonate and other lithium products. The actual controller for Tianqi Lithium is Jiang Weiping. According to the “Forbes 2020 China Rich List”, Tianqi Lithium’s Jiang Weiping family has been left off the list. Prior to this, the Jiang Weiping family once ranked 235th on the list with a net worth of 11.17 billion yuan.
Source: 2019 Forbes China Rich 400 List
The announcement shows that as of November 10, the cumulative number of pledged shares of Tianqi Group, the majority shareholder of Tianqi Lithium Industry, which will expire in the next year is 355 million shares, representing 75.82% of its shares. and 24.03% of the total equity of the company, corresponding to financing. And the guarantee balance is 3.194 billion yuan.
The financing and guarantee balance includes two parts: the first is Tianqi Group’s 2.235 million yuan pledge financing balance, which is lent to Tianqi Lithium and its subsidiaries 609 million yuan; the second is the amount of financing commitment guarantee for Tianqi Lithium and its subsidiaries About 959 million yuan, Tianqi Lithium and the actual loan balance of its subsidiaries is 300 million yuan.
At the close of A shares on November 16, Tianqi Lithium was trading at 22.69 yuan a share, with a total market value of 33.515 million yuan.
On the night of November 13, Tianqi Lithium announced four main risks, including: the risk of not being able to pay principal and interest on a large amount of debt owed, significant litigation, arbitration and related performance risks, project construction or failure of production capacity as expected, and retention The risk of shareholders owning the commitment rate of the company’s shares is too high.
Tianqi Lithium said that if the aforementioned risks such as continued decline in the company’s performance and inability to pay off large overdue debts are triggered, it can cause the company’s share price to fall; at that time, the pledging creditor of Tianqi Group can request the repayment of the financing of the promise or cover positions.
According to The Paper, the company’s current situation is mainly due to a high-priced acquisition in 2018. At that time, Tianqi Lithium signed an agreement with Nutrien, a Canadian fertilizer company, to acquire a 23.77% stake in Chilean lithium mining giant SQM for US $ 4,066 million (approximately RMB 25,920 million), becoming SQM’s second largest shareholder. Along with the original 2.1% stake, Tianqi Lithium currently owns a total 25.86% stake in SQM. At that time, its net assets were approximately 12 billion yuan.
To complete the above transaction, Tianqi Lithium signed an agreement with a syndicate led by China CITIC Bank to add $ 3.5 billion in new M&A loans, including $ 2.5 billion in domestic loans and $ 1 billion in foreign loans. .
However, after spending huge sums of money to acquire SQM, lithium prices began to plummet. Taking lithium carbonate products as an example, the price dropped from more than 160,000 yuan / ton in early 2018 to around 42,000 yuan / ton now, a drop of more than 70%. This has greatly affected Tianqi Lithium’s profitability and liquidity.
Affected by the acquisition of SQM shares, Tianqi Lithium has a large loss of 5.983 billion yuan in 2019, exceeding the company’s net profit in the previous three years. The company continued to lose 1.103 billion yuan in the first three quarters of this year, and is expected to still lose between 1.36 billion and 2.27 billion yuan for the full year. If the net profit is negative for two consecutive years, a foreclosure risk warning may be implemented after the company releases its 2020 annual report.
However, prior to acquiring SQM de Chile, Tianqi Lithium had conducted overseas mergers and acquisitions with great success. According to Red Star News, in 2014, Tianqi Lithium used capital leverage to spend more than 5 billion yuan to complete the acquisition of Australia Talison. Tellison owns the highest grade spodumene mine in the world. This acquisition enables Tianqi Lithium to control the national supply of lithium resources and to become the industry standard setter for battery grade lithium carbonate.
Disclaimer: The content provided by Wemedia is derived from Wemedia and the copyright belongs to the original author. To reprint, contact the original author and obtain permission. Opinions in the article represent the author only, not Sina’s position. If the content involves investment advice, it is for reference only and should not be used as an investment basis. Investing is risky, so be careful when entering the market.
Massive information, accurate interpretation, all in the Sina Finance APP
Editor in charge: Chen Zhijie
