On the evening of December 3, CATL announced that it had received a notice from the controlling shareholder Ningbo Meishan Bonded Port Ruiting Investment Co., Ltd. that in order to support the development of education, Ningbo Ruiting plans to donate its holdings to the Shanghai Jiaotong University Education Development Foundation for free. Some companies have 2 million shares, accounting for 0.09% of the total equity of CATL.
It is reported that Zeng Yuqun, the founder and chairman of Ningde Times, is a 1989 undergraduate alumni of the School of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
In April of this year, Zeng Yuqun was hired as the governor of Shanghai Jiaotong University and donated funds to establish the “Zeng Yuqun Education Fund.”
This time, Zeng Yuqun’s donation amount also set the third largest donation record accepted by Chinese universities so far, second only to the one-time donation of 200 million Vanke shares (valued at 5.3 billion yuan) to the Tsinghua University Education Foundation in 2020. In 2018, Yang Guoqiang, founder of Country Garden Group and Chairman of the Board of Directors, donated 2.2 billion yuan to Tsinghua University.
In 2021, CATL’s share price rose sharply, reaching a market value of one trillion yuan, and Zeng Yuqun’s net worth exceeded 300 billion yuan, surpassing Li Ka-shing as the richest man in Hong Kong.
From a rural boy to the richest man in Hong Kong, Zeng Yuqun continues to create wealth while also constantly giving back to the society.
Entrepreneurship in Ningde era
Zeng Yuqun was born in Lankou Village, Ningde, Fujian in 1968. The mountainous terrain did not open the railway until 2009. And because of the rolling mountain road in Lankou Village, where he was born, it takes more than two hours to drive to downtown Ningde.
Thirty years ago, Zeng Yuqun went out of here to study and was admitted to the Department of Shipbuilding Engineering of Shanghai Jiaotong University.
After graduation, Zeng Yuqun was assigned to a state-owned enterprise in Fujian, but he was not satisfied with his 9-to-5 job. Only three months later, Zeng Yuqun resigned and went to Guangdong, the frontier of reform and opening up, to work as an engineer at Dongguan Xinke Magnetic Power Plant.
There, Zeng Yuqun met Chen Tanghua, the first noble man in his life.
With excellent professional skills and hardworking quality, Zeng Yuqun was appreciated by senior Chen Tanghua. Chen Tanghua also gave him the opportunity to study abroad for the company.
In 1999, under the support of Chen Tanghua, Zeng Yuqun not only became the youngest engineering director of Shinco Magnetic Power Plant, but also the first director from the Mainland in the factory. This year, Zeng Yuqun was 31 years old.
After ten years of working in Xinke Magnetic Power Plant, Zeng Yuqun gradually realized that he had encountered a bottleneck period.
At that time, Liang Shaokang, the CEO of SAE, the parent company of Xinke Magnetic Power Plant, realized that the era of new energy batteries was coming, so he sent Zeng Yuqun to investigate a battery project and invited Zeng Yuqun to start a business with him.
In order to persuade Zeng Yuqun, Liang Shaokang approached Chen Tanghua to lobby. In the end, Zeng Yuqun decided to give up another high-paying job to join Chen Tanghua and Liang Shaokang, and co-founded New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (ATL) in 1999.
Many years later, recalling the decision to start a business at that time, Zeng Yuqun said: “This is all an impulse.”
This impulse came into being in the later Ningde era.
After 2000, the mobile phone industry broke out. With the automation and industrialization of soft pack batteries, ATL became Apple’s supplier in one fell swoop, and successively received orders for vivo, Huawei, and Samsung mobile phones.
After dominating the mobile phone battery industry, Zeng Yuqun was keenly aware of the huge business opportunities of power batteries in the new energy automobile industry. In 2011, the scale of the new energy bus market began to take shape. However, due to national regulations at the time, ATL was unable to produce power batteries because it was a foreign-funded enterprise.
Zeng Yuqun decisively spun off ATL’s automotive power department, and based on this, established a purely Chinese-owned company CATL in his hometown of Ningde, which is Ningde Times New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., focusing on the R&D and production of electric vehicles and energy storage lithium-ion battery systems .
With previous experience in mobile phone batteries, CATL achieved mass production of car batteries in just one year, and successively won orders from car companies such as BMW and Tesla. According to data released by the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, in September 2021, CATL’s market share reached 56.5%.
Ask the richest man
In May 2018, CATL was listed on the ChiNext. At that time, driven by policies and the market, sales of new energy vehicles increased to a new high, and the construction of new energy vehicles by major auto companies was also unprecedentedly enthusiastic.
With the rapid development of the new energy industry, the revenue of the power battery system of CATL has also increased year by year.
Financial report data shows that from 2018 to the first half of 2021, the revenue of power battery systems was 24.515 billion yuan, 38.585 billion yuan, 39.426 billion yuan, and 30.451 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 47.18%, 57.38%, 2.28%, and 125.94. %.
Its overall revenue has also increased from 29.611 billion yuan in 2018 to 50.319 billion yuan in 2020, with a year-on-year growth of 134.07% in the first half of 2021.
At the same time, net profit has also increased year by year. From 2018 to the first half of 2021, net profits were 3.38 billion yuan, 4.56 billion yuan, 5.58 billion yuan, and 4.484 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of -12.66%, 34.64%, and 22.43%. , And 131.45%. Revenue and net profit have increased year by year, and the annual compound growth rate of revenue once exceeded 100%.
A few days ago, CATL has released its financial report for the first three quarters of 2021. In the first three quarters of this year, CATL’s revenue reached 73.3 billion yuan, net profit reached 7.75 billion yuan, and both revenue and profit increased by more than 130%. This also means As a result, its revenue in the nine months of this year has surpassed the level of the entire year last year.
Along with performance growth, CATL has also been recognized by the capital market. From a listing of less than 50 billion yuan to becoming a power battery giant with a market value of one trillion, its stock price and market value have risen more than 20 times. It took only three years for the Ningde era to be called the “power battery king” by foreign media.
The rapid growth of the Ningde era also made Zeng Yuqun’s net worth soaring.
In May of this year, Zeng Yuqun surpassed Li Ka-shing to become the richest man in Hong Kong with a net worth of US$34.5 billion. Prior to this, the position of the richest man in Hong Kong was always Li Ka-shing and Li Shau-kee taking turns. Li Ka-shing had even been the richest man in Hong Kong for more than 20 consecutive years.
Not only surpassing Li Ka-shing, but according to the “2021 Hurun Rich List” released on October 27, Zeng Yuqun has become the third richest person in China, surpassing Ma Yun and Ma Huateng, with a net worth of 320 billion yuan, making it into the top three for the first time. Net worth increased by 200 billion yuan compared with last year, an increase of nearly three times, and the ranking also rose 21 places compared with last year.
In addition, according to Forbes reports, CATL has more billionaires on the Forbes list than almost any other listed company. Nine people, including Co-Vice Chairman Huang Shilin and Li Ping Ping, own 72 billion U.S. dollars, which is more than the value of wealth created by corporate billionaires such as Facebook, Google, and Wal-Mart.
As of press time on December 3, CATL has 687 yuan per share and a market value of 1.6 trillion yuan. Zeng Yuqun, who holds 24.53% of the shares, has a net worth of 404.8 billion. This means that Zeng Yuqun’s net worth has caught up with the net worth at the time of publication. Zhong Suisui, the richest man of 390 billion.
Low-profile charity
While completing wealth accumulation, Zeng Yuqun did not forget to give back to the society.
According to the big data released by the official Weibo of the Fujian Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce, after the outbreak of the new crown virus in 2020, CATL & Zeng Yuqun donated 16 million yuan.
After the heavy rains in Henan Province, CATL also donated 25 million yuan for disaster relief and resettlement work and the maintenance of vehicles equipped with CATL batteries.
As early as 2008, after the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan Province, Zeng Yuqun immediately called on all employees of New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. to donate tens of thousands of yuan; in 2010, Zeng Yuqun donated a value of 24 to the primary and secondary schools in Zhangwang Town, Jiange County, Sichuan Province. 800 sets of desks and benches worth 10,000 yuan.
During the ATL period, in order to help the company’s employees and their immediate family members to provide financial assistance immediately when they suffered injuries, illnesses, or disasters that caused economic difficulties, Zeng Yuqun promoted the establishment of the “New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. Mutual Aid Fund for Difficulties.” It is reported that the number of beneficiaries reached 413 people, and the total amount of assistance was more than 3.16 million yuan.
In addition, Zeng Yuqun also repaired roads in his hometown, established a management training base and a tourist reception center… On the day that the Ningde Times Cheliwan production base project started construction, Ningde Times also announced the official start of the Mindong Times Fund project, and Ningde Times The Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission each subscribed 500 million yuan.
According to the agreement between the two parties, no less than 10% of gene income will be used to support the revitalization and development of villages with weak collective economy.
Many entrepreneurs have “alma mater plot”. In April of this year, Zeng Yuqun was also employed by his alma mater as the director of Shanghai Jiaotong University and donated funds to set up the “Zeng Yuqun Education Fund.” In August, Shanghai Jiaotong University established the School of Future Technology, focusing on interdisciplinary research on the entire industry chain of future energy technology. Zeng Yuqun was again appointed as the honorary dean of the School of Future Technology.
This time, Zeng Yuqun donated 2 million shares of the company worth 1.4 billion to the Education Development Foundation of Shanghai Jiaotong University, setting a record for the third largest donation received by Chinese universities so far.
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