Putailai "Lightning" Listing on HKEX: CATL Supports 40% of Revenue, Still Needs to Raise Funds to Repay Debt

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Source: Beike Finance

While promoting “A+H” listings, Putailai is also pushing for “A to North.”

Just two months after officially announcing its Hong Kong listing plan, the leading lithium battery anode material company Putailai (603659.SH) has formally filed. On March 16, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange website updated Putailai’s prospectus.

Beike Finance reporter from The Beijing News noted that Putailai’s main downstream customers are battery manufacturers, with CATL contributing about 40% of revenue, maintaining its position as the largest customer. While Putailai is expanding overseas into Southeast Asia, major clients like CATL have been increasing their local presence in recent years.

This Hong Kong listing puts pressure on Putailai’s finances. Since going public, the company has raised a total of 48.806 billion yuan, compared to BTR’s 26.033 billion yuan, which listed three years later. As of the end of 2025, about 45% of Putailai’s shares held by controlling shareholder and actual controller Liang Feng are pledged.

Alongside promoting “A+H” listings, Putailai is also advancing “A to North,” planning to spin off its automation equipment subsidiary to the Beijing Stock Exchange, which is seen as a move to ease parent company pressure.

Following CATL’s overseas expansion to capture markets, shifting from Europe to Southeast Asia

Founded in 2012, Putailai is positioned upstream in the lithium battery industry chain, claiming to be a platform enterprise centered on “materials + equipment,” mainly focusing on anode materials, graphite, membrane materials and coatings, and automation equipment.

In its prospectus, Putailai states that its business operates in a highly concentrated market, citing industry data that the company accounts for about 35.3% of the global new energy battery coating separator film market, ranking first for seven consecutive years; by 2025, its artificial graphite anode material shipments and market share are expected to rank sixth globally.

Seeking to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Putailai aims to expand its overseas business and strengthen its global footprint, opening channels for financing in international capital markets.

2026 is viewed as a key year for Putailai to expand its overseas anode production capacity, with Southeast Asia as the target location.

On March 11, Putailai announced plans to build a Malaysia-based anode material production plant with an annual capacity of 50,000 tons, a total investment of $297 million (about 2.051 billion yuan), funded by the company’s own capital. The prospectus shows that one of the uses of funds from the Hong Kong IPO is to build this production base.

Putailai describes the current industry trend as shifting from product exports to localized production, driving international expansion of materials and equipment businesses, with overseas markets becoming a core strategic pillar.

Its main downstream clients are battery manufacturers, with CATL remaining the largest customer for years, contributing about 40% of revenue. Besides CATL, clients include LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI, ATL, BYD, and CATL’s Chinese subsidiary.

For supporting material companies, the goal of going overseas is to keep pace with battery manufacturers. One material supplier told Beike Finance, “Where the battery factories go, we go.”

While betting on Southeast Asia, major clients like CATL have been increasing their local investments in recent years.

For example, CATL’s full-industry-chain factory in Indonesia broke ground last July, with an annual capacity supporting 200,000 to 300,000 electric vehicles, and plans to expand into energy storage.

In fact, entering Southeast Asia has become a common choice for the lithium battery supply chain. BTR, also a negative electrode material manufacturer, started production in Indonesia in 2024 with an annual capacity of 160,000 tons, the first Chinese negative electrode company to operate overseas.

Previously, Putailai chose Europe, another popular overseas destination for lithium battery companies, planning to build a 100,000-ton lithium-ion anode material integrated production base in Sweden. However, this plan was terminated at the end of 2024, mainly due to disagreements with Swedish authorities over project requirements.

Putailai’s shift in overseas strategy is partly driven by practical considerations. SMM lithium analyst Wang Zihan told Beike Finance that Sweden’s strict environmental review for high-power-consuming projects like anode materials makes approval difficult, whereas Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia offer more open policies, tax incentives, and green energy subsidies, along with local supporting clients.

High debt ratio, pushing “A to North” to ease financial pressure

According to data from Zhuoshi Consulting, by 2025, the top ten global anode material companies will hold 86.4% of the market share. The prospectus reveals that, by shipment volume, competitors before Putailai include BTR, Shanshan, Zhongke Xingcheng, Shantai Technology, Kain Energy.

In recent years, prices for anode materials have fluctuated significantly. After 2023, with industry capacity expansion and easing supply-demand imbalance, prices declined steadily, bottoming out in late 2024. From 2025 onward, as excess capacity was eliminated and demand gradually recovered, the downward trend halted, and prices rebounded and stabilized.

Amid intensifying market competition, the average selling price of Putailai’s anode materials dropped from 40.5 yuan/kg in 2023 to 30.2 yuan/kg in 2024, and further to 24.5 yuan/kg in 2025, a 40% decrease over two years. The company states that falling anode prices directly reduced overseas revenue.

Beike Finance’s chart shows that Putailai has not disclosed revenue from its anode materials and coating separator films separately. Based on disclosed average prices and sales volumes, its coating separator film revenue is nearly twice that of anode materials. The higher gross margin of separator films, membrane materials, and functional materials has contributed to the company’s gross profit growth in 2025.

As Putailai prepares for the Hong Kong listing, its financial health has attracted market attention.

Data shows that Putailai’s asset-liability ratio has been relatively high among similar companies, and the total funds raised since listing are also substantial.

According to data from Zhuoshi Finance, the total funds raised since Putailai’s IPO amount to 48.806 billion yuan, compared to BTR’s 26.033 billion yuan, which listed three years later. In 2025 alone, Putailai issued two ultra-short-term financing bonds totaling 1.2 billion yuan and a medium-term note of 200 million yuan, all used to repay debt and supplement subsidiary working capital.

The tight cash flow is also reflected in the pledge of the actual controller’s shares. As of the end of 2025, about 45% of Liang Feng’s holdings in Putailai are pledged.

While pushing for Hong Kong listing, Putailai plans to spin off its automation equipment platform, Jiangsu Jiatuo New Energy Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd. (“Jiatuo Intelligent”), to the Beijing Stock Exchange, with automation equipment accounting for nearly 30% of total revenue.

Beike Finance’s reporter noted that Putailai has been continuously supporting Jiatuo Intelligent, providing guarantees totaling 1.955 billion yuan by the end of 2024, accounting for about 10% of the company’s audited net assets at that time. All seven subsidiaries are wholly owned by Jiatuo Intelligent.

This spin-off may help ease financial pressure on Putailai’s parent company, but whether “A to North” affects the integrity of its H-shares assets will also attract investor scrutiny.

Beike Finance reporter Zhu Yueyi