news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

produced by radar finance hongtu | edited by mo enmeng | deep sea

ubtech robotics, known as the "first stock of humanoid robots", recently released its first interim report after listing. in the interim report released this time, ubtech's revenue reached 487 million yuan, an increase of 86.6% over the previous year.

although ubtech has invested heavily in the field of humanoid robots, the customized intelligent robots and intelligent robot solutions for other industries to which its humanoid robot business belongs have not yet become the mainstay of the company's revenue, with its revenue in the first half of the year accounting for less than 20% of total revenue.

at the same time, ubtech's logistics intelligent robots and intelligent robot solutions also face challenges in terms of revenue. in the first half of the year, the revenue of this segment fell by 22.4% year-on-year, and its share of total revenue dropped significantly to 12.2%, which has become a certain drag on the company's overall revenue.

the long-standing problem of not being able to make a profit is also continuing to plague ubtech. after recording a loss of nearly 4 billion yuan in the previous four years, ubtech again recorded a loss of 540 million yuan in the first half of this year, even exceeding its revenue of 487 million yuan in the same period.

but what comforts ubtech is that the scale of the company's losses has narrowed. the proportion of the company's losses to revenue has dropped from 209.96% in the same period last year to 110.88% in the first half of this year.

on the evening of august 29, zhou jian, chairman and ceo of ubtech robotics, revealed in a conference call that the company expects to receive orders for 1,000 to 2,000 humanoid robots next year, and that more automobile factories and 3c electronics companies will come forward for more cooperation in the future.

looking back at ubtech's development history, the company's founder zhou jian played a crucial role. he once worked for a german listed company and accumulated valuable wealth through entrepreneurship at an early age. however, his love for humanoid robots made zhou jian plunge into the arduous entrepreneurial journey.

when the company was in the most difficult time, zhou jian had to sell all the houses and cars he bought with his own money to keep the company running. hard work pays off. with zhou jian's efforts and the help of investor xia zuoquan, ubtech's entrepreneurial journey continued. it has released a number of robots and sent them to the spring festival gala and other stages.

at the end of last year, ubtech successfully realized its dream of listing on the hong kong stock exchange.however, compared with the previous high of hk$328 per share, ubtech's current share price of hk$92.25 per share is less than 30% of the previous high. based on this calculation, the company's market value has evaporated by 98.912 billion yuan from its high point.

the founder zhou jian's wealth of 9.5 billion yuan on the "2024 hurun global rich list" has also shrunk by 3 billion yuan compared to 2021.

ubtech releases mid-term report, humanoid robots account for less than 20% of revenue

on december 29 last year, at the end of 2023, ubtech robotics rang the bell for its listing on the hong kong stock exchange and was honored with the reputation of "the first stock of humanoid robots."

at the listing ceremony held that day, ubtech's panda robot "uyou" walked steadily onto the stage and handed the gong hammer to founder zhou jian. the industrial humanoid robot walker s, which was unveiled later, rang the listing bell together with zhou jian, creating the first historic moment in human history when a humanoid robot rang the gong for listing.

in the blink of an eye, more than half a year has passed, and ubtech recently handed in its first interim performance report after its listing. the financial report shows that in the first half of this year, the company achieved revenue of 487 million yuan, an increase of 86.6% compared with the revenue of 261 million yuan in the same period last year. this significant growth is mainly due to the company's enhanced business expansion, new product launches and the delivery of signed projects.

from the perspective of product layout, ubtech's revenue mainly comes from the following major sectors: educational intelligent robots and intelligent robot solutions, logistics intelligent robots and intelligent robot solutions, customized intelligent robots and intelligent robot solutions for other industries, consumer robots and other hardware equipment.

in the first half of this year, ubtech's revenue from the aforementioned major sectors was rmb 161 million, rmb 60 million, rmb 91 million and rmb 175 million, respectively, accounting for 33.1%, 12.2%, 18.7% and 35.8% of the total revenue, respectively.

among them, the revenue of educational intelligent robots and intelligent robot solutions, consumer robots and other hardware equipment accounted for more than 30%, which can be regarded as the dual engines of ubtech's revenue. however, the revenue of customized intelligent robots and intelligent robot solutions for other industries, to which ubtech is proud of its humanoid robots, accounted for less than 20% of the company's total revenue in the first half of the year, and there is still a long way to go before it can become the company's revenue pillar.

compared with the same period last year, the revenue of ubtech's educational intelligent robots and intelligent robot solutions, customized intelligent robots and intelligent robot solutions for other industries, and consumer robots and other hardware equipment divisions all achieved leapfrog growth, with the former's year-on-year growth rates of 112.9%, 309.5% and 105.5%, all above 100%.

specifically, the revenue growth of educational intelligent robots and intelligent robot solutions was mainly due to the delivery of projects signed in the previous year during the reporting period; the revenue growth of customized intelligent robots and intelligent robot solutions for other industries was due to the company's enhanced industry expansion, which led to revenue growth in other industries; the revenue growth of consumer-grade robots and other hardware equipment was due to the company's continuous introduction of new products to drive revenue growth.

however, ubtech's logistics intelligent robots and intelligent robot solutions business is an exception. this segment dragged down the company's overall revenue performance in the first half of the year. during the reporting period, the segment's revenue fell 22.4% year-on-year, and it was the only segment among the four major segments whose revenue share declined, from 29.4% in the first half of last year to 12.2% in the first half of this year. ubtech explained that some projects were delivered and accepted in the second half of 2024.

although the humanoid robot sector has not yet become the company's main revenue source, zhou jian, chairman of the board and ceo of ubtech, said at the performance exchange meeting that humanoid robots are not very versatile so far, and they cannot be thrown in and work immediately. as time goes by, the learning ability of humanoid robots may not need to be trained as long as humans. at the same time, in terms of intelligence and other aspects, industrial robots or industrial mechanical systems may not reach the level of humanoid robots.

zhou jian believes that in the future, the number of humanoid robots will far exceed that of humans, and will exceed that of new energy vehicles and mobile phones. there may be more than one humanoid robot around each person, and the industry track is very large. with the reduction of costs and large-scale mass production, bipedal robots will become more versatile in the future.

it is worth mentioning that ubtech also revealed in the financial report released this time that in the first half of this year, the company focused on the automotive manufacturing industry, took the lead in entering well-known automobile factories to carry out humanoid robot training, jointly built a humanoid robot demonstration factory, and realized in-depth application in typical industrial scenarios. at the same time, ubtech also cooperated with a number of 3c companies to build a humanoid robot application ecosystem, and for the first time demonstrated the completion of the humanoid robot industrial scenario solution at wrc.

the company has not gotten rid of the loss dilemma for a long time, and the loss scale in the first half of the year exceeded the revenue

despite achieving a significant growth of nearly 80% in revenue indicators in the first half of the year, ubtech is still mired in losses.

according to data from eastmoney, ubtech recorded losses of 707 million yuan, 918 million yuan, 987 million yuan, and 1.265 billion yuan from 2020 to 2023, respectively, with a cumulative loss of nearly 3.9 billion yuan. in the first half of this year, ubtech again recorded a loss of 540 million yuan, a figure that even exceeded the company's total revenue of 487 million yuan during the same period.

further analysis shows that along with the growth of revenue, ubtech's costs also rose in the first half of the year. in the first half of this year, ubtech's operating costs reached 302 million yuan, an increase of nearly 50% over the same period last year when the operating costs were 202 million yuan.

however, as the increase in operating costs was lower than the increase in revenue, ubtech's gross profit increased by 213.9% in the first half of this year to 185 million yuan. at the same time, ubtech's overall gross profit margin also increased from 22.6% in the first half of 2023 to 38% in the first half of this year, an increase of 15.4 percentage points year-on-year.

radar finance noted that in addition to operating costs, ubtech's various expenses also increased in the first half of this year. as the company increased its market expansion, ubtech's sales expenses increased by 25.9% year-on-year to 234 million yuan; due to the increase in the number of employees in the company and the increase in expenses incurred by product upgrades and disposal of old products, ubtech's management expenses increased by 17.5% to 215 million yuan in the first half of the year.

in contrast, ubtech's r&d expenses increased less significantly. in the first half of the year, due to the increase in the number of the company's r&d personnel, ubtech's r&d expenses reached 228 million yuan, an increase of 1.4% year-on-year.

at the same time, due to the deferred payment of accounts receivable from some government-related customers, based on prudence considerations, ubtech made corresponding impairment provisions during the reporting period, resulting in a credit impairment loss of rmb 74 million in the first half of the year.

based on the above circumstances, ubtech suffered a loss of 540 million yuan in the first half of the year. although the scale of ubtech's loss has exceeded its revenue scale in the same period, compared with the loss of 548 million yuan in the same period last year, ubtech's loss scale has actually narrowed.

in terms of the proportion of losses to revenue, ubtech's loss scale has also been controlled to a certain extent. in the first half of 2023, ubtech's losses accounted for 209.96% of its revenue, while in the first half of this year, ubtech's losses accounted for 110.88% of its revenue.

although it has not yet emerged from the quagmire of losses, ubtech's cash and cash equivalents reached 755 million yuan at the end of the first half of the year, achieving further growth from 521 million yuan at the end of last year, mainly due to ubtech's receipt of funds raised from its listing.

however, according to ifind data from tonghuashun, ubtech's debt-to-asset ratio reached 59.96% in the first half of the year, exceeding 56.17% at the end of last year. as of the end of the first half of the year, ubtech's leverage ratio was 97.8%. ubtech said that with the cash and bank balances it holds and the total net proceeds of approximately hk$931 million from the global offering in early 2024, the group's liquidity position remains strong and sufficient to meet its working capital needs.

the founder sold his car and house to start a business, and his wealth shrunk by 3 billion compared to 2021

as the man behind ubtech, zhou jian has shown extraordinary wisdom and diligence since he was young. he was a top student since he was young and was admitted to nanjing forestry university in 1995. during his university studies, zhou jian, who had excellent grades, won the first german michael willy top scholarship awarded by thomas bach, president of the international olympic committee, and then went to germany to continue his studies.

when visiting the local michael willy factory, zhou jian was deeply touched by the factory's high degree of automation and precision manufacturing. after graduation, he immediately joined the listed company. with his outstanding performance at work, zhou jian was quickly promoted to the position of china regional manager of the company. later, zhou jian also increased the sales volume of the china region by 17 times with his outstanding sales ability and market insight. behind the outstanding work performance, zhou jian also accumulated rich experience in corporate management.

however, zhou jian, who was doing well at work, had far more ambitions. zhou jian, who chose to return to china for development, resolutely plunged into the tide of entrepreneurship and opened a factory in shanghai, mainly producing some small-scale automated production line equipment. this entrepreneurial experience allowed zhou jian to taste the taste of making money early and also helped him realize the initial accumulation of personal wealth.

in 2008, zhou jian came into contact with a small and flexible humanoid robot for the first time by chance at a robot exhibition in japan. at that moment, this small humanoid robot planted a seed deep in zhou jian's heart.

however, the price of this robot is not cheap, it costs more than 20,000 yuan in rmb. under this situation, zhou jian came up with an idea that if he could develop a humanoid intelligent robot that ordinary families can afford and use, it would bring great changes to people's lives.

with such ambitions in mind, zhou jian first devoted all his energy to the research and development of servos (one of the most important components of humanoid robots, which can be understood as the "joints" of robots). in 2012, zhou jian finally made a "joint". seeing hope, zhou jian brought in more than a dozen employees and officially founded ubtech.

however, starting a business is not as easy as imagined. not long after the company was established, zhou jian had almost used up all his "ammunition". "because it is not too difficult to make money when you are young, it is inevitable that you will be young and frivolous and spend money (on research and development) lavishly. every time i invest millions, i feel that it is almost there, so i continue to invest, and i keep going in this cycle. every time i feel that something will come out, but it doesn't, and i can't complete the closed loop."

in order to keep his entrepreneurial dream going, zhou jian not only borrowed more than 900,000 yuan from his father, but also sold his own property, car and savings over the years. zhou jian invested all the funds raised into the company's robot research and development project.

as a result, zhou jian's work environment and quality of life declined significantly. in order to save rent, zhou jian had to move his office from near hong kong polytechnic university to longgang. zhou jian, who once owned three houses, had to rent a house after selling them. zhou jian, who used to choose the best dentists when he was rich, could not even afford to see a dentist when he was short of money.

at the critical moment of zhou jian's entrepreneurship, investor and byd co-founder xia zuoquan sent zhou jian life-saving food. recalling that experience, zhou jian said frankly, "every dollar seemed to be matched. if i had been a little extravagant at the time, bought a car or spent money on other things, i might not have waited for others to invest if i was short of 100,000 yuan or 50,000 yuan. this seems to be a mysterious arrangement of fate, or it may have something to do with my all-in."

when talking about zhou jian and his entrepreneurial project, xia zuoquan said, "since wang chuanfu and i founded byd, i have been paying attention to high-tech industries and various innovative projects around the world. until i saw zhou jian's team members and their robot products, my eyes lit up. this is exactly what i have been looking for! the innovation atmosphere in china is still far behind that of developed countries such as europe, the united states, japan and south korea. i didn't expect that someone in china has already overcome this technical difficulty."

zhou jian's hard work paid off. in 2014, the company successfully developed and produced its first small humanoid robot, alpha. the following year, ubtech's alpha robot was displayed at the china international high-tech achievements fair.

in 2016, the humanoid robot built by ubtech even appeared on the stage of cctv spring festival gala in guangdong, which made ubtech famous. at that time, 540 alpha 1s robots appeared on the stage of the spring festival gala, and ubtech also won a guinness world record.

in the following years, ubtech has successively created a number of products, including the walker series of large humanoid robots. ubtech's robot products have also appeared on the stage of major events such as the spring festival gala and the opening ceremony of the winter olympics.

as ubtech's reputation continues to grow, more and more capital is also paying attention to ubtech.tianyancha shows that before its listing, ubtech had already obtained multiple rounds of financing, and well-known investors including tencent, haier, minsheng securities, telstra, easyhome, and thailand's charoen pokphand group have all bet on it.

in december last year, ubtech entered the hong kong stock market. after the listing, ubtech's share price once reached a high of hk$328 per share. however, as of the close of august 31, ubtech's share price closed at hk$92.25 per share. although it rose 3.48% from the previous trading day, it was still a big gap compared with the previous highlight, less than 30% of the high point of the stock price.

in addition, in the "2024 hurun global rich list" released by hurun research institute this year, zhou jian ranked 2573rd on the list with a wealth of 9.5 billion yuan. however, compared with the wealth of 12.5 billion yuan when he was on the "2021 hurun global rich list", zhou jian's wealth has still shrunk by 3 billion yuan.