"A millimeter-wave radar chip company was valued at 1 billion yuan when it raised money last year. When it raised money again this year, the overall valuation shrank to 600 million yuan." As a primary market FA (primary market financial consultant) Lu Dan, the founder of High Desk Capital, feels particularly strongly about the changes in the “water temperature” of the equity financing market.
She told China Business News that "star project discounts" are a common story in recent times. The reporter combed through and found that project valuations including star logistics company Cainiao Network, star chip company Xingsi Semiconductor, and even giant ByteDance have all fallen sharply in the past period of time.
Xingsi Semiconductor investors believe that "the deterioration of the financing environment" is an important reason for the decline in valuation. Against this background, some projects have begun to seek merger and acquisition opportunities, and investors have reaped returns that have more than doubled.
ByteDance and Cainiao Network valuations have shrunk
Third-party platform information shows that on April 3, an institutional buyer released a purchase information for ByteDance shares, giving the latter an expected valuation of US$210 billion. .
On September 21, 2022, when institutional buyers purchased Bytedance’s old shares, the overall valuation given was US$300 billion.
Although the institutional share purchase price does not completely accurately reflect the company’s valuation, it still reflects the downward valuation of ByteDance to a certain extent.
is different from ByteDance, but the valuation of Cainiao Network has actually shrunk by nearly 60%.
Alibaba announced on March 26 that it had decided to withdraw Cainiao Network’s listing application and made a tender offer to acquire minority shareholders’ equity and employees’ vested equity. The amount involved in this acquisition reached US$3.75 billion.
Alibaba Chairman Tsai Chongxin said in a conference call that evening that the latest valuation of Cainiao Network reflected in the tender offer price was US$10.3 billion. Shareholders with a minority stake in Cainiao have the right to choose whether to continue to hold shares or sell their shares. shares.
Not long ago, some institutions were seeking to purchase the old shares of Cainiao Network at a valuation of over US$20 billion.
At the end of November 2023, an organization issued an announcement on the Internet platform to "purchase old shares of Cainiao Network." At that time, the expected valuation given by the buyer was US$21 billion.
In the primary market, old shares usually refer to the shares held by early investors, venture capital funds, private equity funds, founding teams or other shareholders before the company's initial public offering (IPO). A partner of a certain primary market investment institution
told reporters that due to the need to exit funds upon expiration and the tightening of IPOs in the capital market and other factors, the current trading price of old stocks in the market is generally 50 to 20% off.
Therefore, the valuation of Cainiao Network at that time was even higher than 21 billion US dollars, which was also in line with the valuation of Cainiao Network by mainstream institutions at the time. In the 2023 Hurun Global Unicorn List, Cainiao's valuation is as high as 185 billion yuan (valued at approximately US$25.558 billion at the latest exchange rate).
Cai Chongxin also mentioned in the above-mentioned conference call, "Considering Cainiao's strategic role and future plans within the group, as well as the current challenging IPO market environment, Cainiao's IPO currently or in the foreseeable future is not in line with the group's development strategy, and any valuation that can be achieved by an IPO cannot reflect what we currently believe to be the true strategic value of Cainiao. ”
Alibaba initially announced a comprehensive asset restructuring plan in May 2023, which included Cainiao’s IPO. At that time, Alibaba believed that a separate listing could better reflect the value of Cainiao as an important business of Alibaba, but the situation has changed now.
The pre-investment valuation of star semiconductor companies is "40% off"
The valuation of the giant has shrunk. At the same time, the valuation of star semiconductor projects has also shrunk.
Xingsi Semiconductor recently announced the completion of Series B financing, and Blue Shield Optoelectronics (300862.sz) is also one of its investors. According to previous announcements, Blue Shield Optoelectronics plans to participate in the financing of Xingsi Semiconductor with 180 million yuan of its own funds. After the financing is completed, the company is expected to directly hold about 5% of the equity of Xingsi Semiconductor.
Due to the substantial valuation compared with the A-round financing The investment shrunk and the investment was subject to regulatory inquiries. In the A-round financing completed by
in June 2022, Xingsi Semiconductor’s pre-investment valuation was 4.882 billion yuan.
"A millimeter-wave radar chip company was valued at 1 billion yuan when it raised money last year. When it raised money again this year, the overall valuation shrank to 600 million yuan." As a primary market FA (primary market financial consultant) Lu Dan, the founder of High Desk Capital, feels particularly strongly about the changes in the “water temperature” of the equity financing market.
She told China Business News that "star project discounts" are a common story in recent times. The reporter combed through and found that project valuations including star logistics company Cainiao Network, star chip company Xingsi Semiconductor, and even giant ByteDance have all fallen sharply in the past period of time.
Xingsi Semiconductor investors believe that "the deterioration of the financing environment" is an important reason for the decline in valuation. Against this background, some projects have begun to seek merger and acquisition opportunities, and investors have reaped returns that have more than doubled.
ByteDance and Cainiao Network valuations have shrunk
Third-party platform information shows that on April 3, an institutional buyer released a purchase information for ByteDance shares, giving the latter an expected valuation of US$210 billion. .
On September 21, 2022, when institutional buyers purchased Bytedance’s old shares, the overall valuation given was US$300 billion.
Although the institutional share purchase price does not completely accurately reflect the company’s valuation, it still reflects the downward valuation of ByteDance to a certain extent.
is different from ByteDance, but the valuation of Cainiao Network has actually shrunk by nearly 60%.
Alibaba announced on March 26 that it had decided to withdraw Cainiao Network’s listing application and made a tender offer to acquire minority shareholders’ equity and employees’ vested equity. The amount involved in this acquisition reached US$3.75 billion.
Alibaba Chairman Tsai Chongxin said in a conference call that evening that the latest valuation of Cainiao Network reflected in the tender offer price was US$10.3 billion. Shareholders with a minority stake in Cainiao have the right to choose whether to continue to hold shares or sell their shares. shares.
Not long ago, some institutions were seeking to purchase the old shares of Cainiao Network at a valuation of over US$20 billion.
At the end of November 2023, an organization issued an announcement on the Internet platform to "purchase old shares of Cainiao Network." At that time, the expected valuation given by the buyer was US$21 billion.
In the primary market, old shares usually refer to the shares held by early investors, venture capital funds, private equity funds, founding teams or other shareholders before the company's initial public offering (IPO). A partner of a certain primary market investment institution
told reporters that due to the need to exit funds upon expiration and the tightening of IPOs in the capital market and other factors, the current trading price of old stocks in the market is generally 50 to 20% off.
Therefore, the valuation of Cainiao Network at that time was even higher than 21 billion US dollars, which was also in line with the valuation of Cainiao Network by mainstream institutions at the time. In the 2023 Hurun Global Unicorn List, Cainiao's valuation is as high as 185 billion yuan (valued at approximately US$25.558 billion at the latest exchange rate).
Cai Chongxin also mentioned in the above-mentioned conference call, "Considering Cainiao's strategic role and future plans within the group, as well as the current challenging IPO market environment, Cainiao's IPO currently or in the foreseeable future is not in line with the group's development strategy, and any valuation that can be achieved by an IPO cannot reflect what we currently believe to be the true strategic value of Cainiao. ”
Alibaba initially announced a comprehensive asset restructuring plan in May 2023, which included Cainiao’s IPO. At that time, Alibaba believed that a separate listing could better reflect the value of Cainiao as an important business of Alibaba, but the situation has changed now.
The pre-investment valuation of star semiconductor companies is "40% off"
The valuation of the giant has shrunk. At the same time, the valuation of star semiconductor projects has also shrunk.
Xingsi Semiconductor recently announced the completion of Series B financing, and Blue Shield Optoelectronics (300862.sz) is also one of its investors. According to previous announcements, Blue Shield Optoelectronics plans to participate in the financing of Xingsi Semiconductor with 180 million yuan of its own funds. After the financing is completed, the company is expected to directly hold about 5% of the equity of Xingsi Semiconductor.
Due to the substantial valuation compared with the A-round financing The investment shrunk and the investment was subject to regulatory inquiries. In the A-round financing completed by
in June 2022, Xingsi Semiconductor’s pre-investment valuation was 4.882 billion yuan.In this B round of financing, Xingsi Semiconductor’s pre-investment valuation was only 3 billion yuan, which is equivalent to a “40% discount”.
Shenzhen Stock Exchange requires Blue Shield Optoelectronics to explain the basis, evaluation method and rationality of the valuation of this round of investment.
Blue Shield Optoelectronics attributed the valuation reduction to "factors such as changes in the primary market and fluctuations in semiconductor market demand," and said that the financing environment for chip companies has generally deteriorated recently. Based on the comprehensive financing environment and its own capital needs, Xingsi Semiconductor decided to quickly complete this round of financing, so it reduced the pre-investment valuation to 3 billion yuan.
In October 2020, Xingsi Semiconductor was registered in Shanghai, focusing on the research and development of baseband chips for 5g/6g communication technology, providing customers with competitive full-scenario air, space and ground integrated chips and solutions, including 5g/6g embb, redcap and ntn’s terminal/mobile phone baseband chip platforms and solutions.
As one of the few domestic companies engaged in baseband chip design, Xingsi Semiconductor successfully taped out the first version of its first self-developed 5g baseband chip in November 2022, and successfully opened the satellite test call in August 2023.
At the same time, Xingsi Semiconductor’s financing power is in full swing, and it completed an angel round of financing of 100 million yuan two months after its establishment. Until the recently announced Series B financing of 500 million yuan, Xingsi Semiconductor, which was founded only three and a half years ago, has raised a total of more than 1.7 billion yuan.
"Investment institutions have no money, so they have stricter requirements on project valuation. It is quite common for projects with valuations between 2 billion and 5 billion yuan to go out for financing." A partner from an FA institution people told CBN News.
According to her, if it goes public as a strategic investor, the valuation of the project will be "cut even more severely." Because listed companies may have their own resources, they can provide more help to companies than purely financial investors.
Obtained more than doubled returns through mergers and acquisitions of shareholders
Against the background of "fractured" project valuations, some companies began to seek mergers and acquisitions institutions, but achieved good book returns.
Jiejie Microelectronics (300623.sz) announced on April 3 that it would invest 1.016 billion yuan in cash and stocks to Sutong Fund, Nantong Investment, Science and Technology Innovation Fund, Sutong Holdings, Fengze No. 1, Nantong Zhiqi purchased a total of 30.24% of the equity it held in Jiejie Nantong Technology, of which the proportion of consideration paid in the form of issuance of shares and cash accounted for 65.00% and 35.00% of the transaction consideration respectively. After the transaction is completed, the listed company will hold 91.55% of the equity of Jiejie Nantong Technology.
In 2021, Jiejie Microelectronics established a wholly-owned subsidiary Jiejie Nantong in Nantong, Jiangsu. In March of the following year, Jiejie's mosfet chip wafer factory in Nantong started construction.
In order to meet the huge financial needs for the construction of wafer fabs, Jiejie Nantong has launched a round of external financing. In September 2021, Jiejie Nantong successfully raised 510 million yuan, with investors including Nantong Investment, Nantong Zhiqi and other institutions. In this round of financing, Jiejie Nantong’s valuation (post-investment) was 1.31 billion yuan.
In January 2022, Jiejie Nantong increased capital in a new round. The investor was Shanghai Litian (a fund under Shenzhen Zhongmin Capital). The investment amount was 140 million yuan, and the valuation was consistent with the previous round.
In this merger and acquisition, the total valuation of Jiejie Nantong is 3.36 billion yuan, an increase of more than 132% compared with the valuation at the time of financing in 2022. For Nantong Investment and other shareholders who exited in this round, they have more than doubled their returns in two years, which is considered a very cost-effective deal at the moment.
However, not all Jiejie Nantong’s shareholders have withdrawn, and China Minsheng Capital did not participate in this merger. Jiejie Microelectronics explained that CMBC voluntarily gave up participating in this transaction based on its own judgment of the short-term market conditions of the semiconductor industry and other factors.
When exit channels such as IPOs are blocked, exiting through mergers and acquisitions has become a common choice for some VC/PE companies. Yu Hongmei, managing partner and general manager of Chuanghehui Capital, said at a meeting held at the beginning of the year, (my company Institutions) will increase mergers and acquisitions and transfer exits this year. She believes that in the context of the slowdown in the pace of IPOs, everyone must strengthen their layout in mergers and acquisitions and even S funds.
According to statistics from Zero2IPO Research Center, the activity of M&A transactions involving Chinese enterprises has steadily increased in 2023. The total number of M&A cases was 2,654, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%; the total transaction amount involved was nearly one trillion, affected by the fluctuation of large-scale cases in the previous year. A slight year-on-year decline.From the perspective of M&A characteristics, M&A transactions aimed at optimizing and integrating the assets of state-owned enterprises, transforming and upgrading traditional industries, and internationalizing development of Chinese enterprises are the main components of the market.
(This article comes from China Business News)
From the perspective of M&A characteristics, M&A transactions aimed at optimizing and integrating the assets of state-owned enterprises, transforming and upgrading traditional industries, and internationalizing development of Chinese enterprises are the main components of the market.(This article comes from China Business News)
