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on the evening of september 9, there was news that catl was in talks to acquire the photovoltaic company yida new energy. on september 10, reporters from the daily economic news sought confirmation from catl and yida new energy, but as of press time, the phone line of catl's secretary was busy, and another person related to catl had not yet responded to the relevant situation. a person related to yida new energy told reporters that they did not know the specific situation, and the leaders of the relevant situation may still be in further communication.

"at present, the official news of catl's entry into the photovoltaic industry has not been disclosed, and the specific situation still needs to wait for the announcement, but judging from the photovoltaic market, catl should be planning to buy at a low price." a new energy industry practitioner told reporters that catl's strategy should be to develop the next generation of perovskite photovoltaic cells.

according to public information, in may 2022, zeng yuqun, chairman of catl, said at the catl performance briefing that the company's research on perovskite photovoltaic cells is progressing smoothly and a pilot line is being built. in may 2023, catl released the world's first zero-auxiliary-source photovoltaic storage fusion solution at the snec photovoltaic conference and (shanghai) exhibition.

insider: the acquisition is still under discussion

according to data released by the national energy administration, china's newly installed photovoltaic capacity in the first seven months of 2024 was 123.53gw, a year-on-year increase of 27.1%; in july alone, the newly installed capacity was 21.05gw, a year-on-year increase of 12.3%. the strong growth momentum of the photovoltaic industry has attracted the attention of lithium battery giant catl.

according to current media reports, the merger and acquisition negotiations between catl and yida new energy may be concluded within a month. according to the global module shipment rankings for the first half of 2024 released by infolink consulting, yida new energy ranked eighth in the world, tied with gcl-poly integration.

a practitioner in the new energy field told reporters that yida new energy is currently in contact with more than one company, catl, and the final acquisition situation is still unknown.

it is reported that on august 16, the shenzhen stock exchange just disclosed the decision to terminate the review of the initial public offering and listing on the growth enterprise market of yida new energy technology co., ltd. (i.e. yida new energy). previously, yida new energy planned to raise 2.5 billion yuan for the annual production of 14gw n-type topcon high-efficiency monocrystalline cells and 20gw high-efficiency monocrystalline modules, as well as to supplement working capital projects.

from the perspective of cash flow, catl is quite confident in acquiring yida new energy. as of the 2024 semi-annual report, the cash and cash equivalents of catl's current assets amounted to 255 billion yuan; in the first half of 2024, catl's net profit was 22.865 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.37%.

image source: daily economic news data map

the reporter noted that this is not the first time that catl has set its sights on the photovoltaic business. in the first half of this year, catl's subsidiary times green energy co., ltd. acquired 100% of the shares of liyang leye photovoltaic energy co., ltd., a photovoltaic power station, for 52.9965 million yuan; during the same period, catl also acquired 100% of the shares of another power supplier, bozhou xijia new energy co., ltd.

the reporter learned that currently, among the giant companies in the lithium battery industry, byd and tesla are already involved in both lithium battery and photovoltaic businesses.

planning its photovoltaic business, is catl focusing on the photovoltaic storage industry?

acquisitions are not uncommon for photovoltaic companies. in august, tongwei co., ltd. announced that it planned to acquire runyang co., ltd., the world's fifth largest photovoltaic cell manufacturer, for 5 billion yuan. the reporter noticed that the photovoltaic market has been slightly bleak since the beginning of this year. according to statistics from the china photovoltaic industry association, in the first half of 2024, the prices of polysilicon and silicon wafers fell by more than 40%, and the prices of battery cells and modules fell by more than 15%.

according to oriental wealth choice data, in the first half of 2024, 19 of the 36 listed photovoltaic companies suffered losses; and 10 companies experienced a decline in performance.

fang wenzhen, an analyst at longzhong information, told reporters that the imbalance between supply and demand in all links of the photovoltaic industry chain is currently intensifying, and prices are continuing to fall, resulting in an expansion of the industry's overall losses and the entry into a stage of de-capacity.

"m&a activities in the photovoltaic industry, such as tongwei's acquisition of runyang, reflect the trend of industry integration and resource allocation optimization." fang wenzheng said that such mergers and acquisitions may become a long-term trend because they help enhance the market competitiveness of enterprises, achieve economies of scale, and accelerate technological innovation and industrial upgrading. mergers and acquisitions can make the position of enterprises in the industrial chain more stable, and may also accelerate the reshuffle of the industry and eliminate backward production capacity.

however, according to tianyancha data, as of august 2024, there are more than 940,000 existing "photovoltaic" related companies. from january to august 2024 alone, nearly 170,000 new related companies were added, an increase of 8% compared with the same period in 2023. there are still new entrants in the industry.

image source: daily economic news data map

an insider of a photovoltaic company also told the reporter that judging from the current market, the photovoltaic industry's low cycle will probably last for another 1 to 2 years, and the speed of eliminating excess production capacity is far lower than expected.

fang wenzheng predicts that judging from the current development of the industry, the speed of clearing out photovoltaic capacity will accelerate from 2024 to 2025. it will probably be until 2026 that the major reshuffle of the photovoltaic industry will see obvious results.

in the view of industry insiders, catl's choice to "enter" the photovoltaic business at this time is, on the one hand, a bargain-hunting move, and on the other hand, an effort to increase its layout in the overall solution of photovoltaic and energy storage integration.

"as a high-tech and high-capital intensive industry, if catl's acquisition is true and implemented, it will actually be a good thing for the development of the photovoltaic industry." the aforementioned photovoltaic company insider said that the leading acquisition has strengthened the industry's concentration and optimized and integrated industry resources.

at present, catl's business has been promoting new energy application solutions and services such as the demonstration application of photovoltaic storage and charging microgrid technology, photovoltaic storage and charging inspection smart charging stations, and yida new energy, as a dark horse in the n-type technology track, may be able to "add icing on the cake" for catl's photovoltaic storage business if the acquisition is completed.

in fact, the photovoltaic industry generally believes that the next generation photovoltaic technology that breaks through the limits of crystalline silicon cells is tandem cells. compared with xbc, topcon is more suitable as the bottom cell of tandem cells and is more cost-effective. however, the aforementioned photovoltaic industry insider also told reporters that the tandem technology is currently in the research and development stage and still requires a large amount of research and development investment.