Category: Uncategorized

Employee counts at the end of 2020, 2021, 2022:

Their R&D expenses combined is likely to be similar as Tesla’s R&D expenses in 2023, or ~$4bn.

CapEx (rmb, mn) in 1H 2022, 2H 2022, 1H 2023:

Despite a macro downturn, Nio is spending more in capex.

Nio’s capex is now 26% of its revenue in 23H1; XPEV capex has come down a bit to 16% of revenue; Li Auto had the best ratio at 5.4% of revenue in 23H1.

The trio has spent 18bn rmb in capex from H2 2022 to H1 2023, or ~$2.5bn in usd.

To compare, Tesla has spent $7.8bn in capex during the same period; Rivian spent $1.1bn and Lucid spent $1bn.

While Tesla and Li Auto’s gross profits are higher than their capex number, the other 4 companies were burning their own cash.

Middle-east (CYVN, Abu Dhabi based) is backing Nio in 2023, providing ~$3bn net new funding to Nio.

EU (Volkswagen) is backing Xpev in 2023, providing ~$700mn financing to Xpev.

Based on official data. Mutual funds can be several types: equity, debt, money market, QDII (foreign), mixed etc.

Therefore, “equity + mixed” types should represent the domestic rmb equity market mutual fund sizes.

The mutual fund size peaked in 2021 and kept dipping in 2023.

HK’s Hang Seng Index will incorporate Chinese internet giants Alibaba, Xiaomi and Meituan Dianping – companies with dual-class or equivalent structures, starting from August, with a weighting cap of 5%. The tech trio are also eligible to join the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index. The Hang Seng is tracked by $20 billion of exchange-listed products globally and $8 billion of local retirement plans, the index provider said in a consultation paper in January. // FT | Hang Seng Indexes

On May 18, HeyTea 喜茶 announced the roll-out of its first artificial meat product, partnering with Starfield 星期零. The 未来肉芝士堡 is priced at ¥25. // 36kr | WeChat

Before HeyTea, its competitor Naixue’s Tea also partnered with Starfield on artificial meat burger last November. Last month, Starbucks and KFC in China launched their artificial / plant-based meat products. // Sina | 36kr

ByteDance is marching into automobile sector with plans to integrate Douyin and Toutiao into cars. The research and development (R&D) team for the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) team are former employees of smartphone maker Smartisan 锤子手机, who joined the company after ByteDance acquired Smartisan (team & patents) in early 2019. // 36kr | kr-asia

Chinese black-box doll retailer Pop Mart 泡泡玛特 has raised more than $100 million in funding from China Renaissance and Loyal Valley Capital in what is expected to be its last round before an IPO. // avcj | 36kr

On April 17, China 2020 Q1 GDP data is released. China’s economy shrank 6.8% in the first three months of 2020 compared with a year earlier, the first such contraction since Beijing began reporting quarterly gross domestic product in 1992. // WSJ

On April 15, China cut the benchmark interest rate for the second time this year, lowering the medium-term lending facility (MLF) for financial institutions to 2.95%. The one-year loan prime rate (LPR), based on banks quotations, was lowered by 20 basis points (bps) from 4.05% to 3.85%. // Reuters | PBOC

China’s central bank has introduced a homegrown digital currency across four cities as part of a pilot program. Internal tests of the digital currency are being conducted in four large cities around China—Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu and Xiong’an, a satellite city of Beijing. // WSJ

As China is reopening its economy, getting consumers to spend is one of the key initiatives. Many cities collaborate with Alipay to give residents discount coupons for various needs. Wuhan, which reopened on April 8, on April 17 announced that it is going to offer coupons worth of 2.3 billion RMB for restaurant, shopping malls, grocery stores and other cultural/sports spendings. // cnbeta

WSJ – Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.2% this week, extending its rally over the past two weeks to 15%—its best performance since 1938

Things that pushed the market upward:

STAT – Early peek at data on Gilead coronavirus drug suggests patients are responding to treatment

White House – Reopening guideline

Texas Tribune – Texas to restart the economy, loosens some restrictions

On April 7, TAL Education 好未来 (NASDAQ: TAL) announced it discovered “certain employee wrongdoing” in its “routine internal auditing process.” TAL says the employee of question could wrongly inflate “Light Class” 轻课 sales by forging contracts and other documentations. For the fiscal year 2020 ended February 29, 2020, “Light Class” sales accounted for approximately 3% to 4% of the Company’s total estimated revenues.  // Press Release | 36kr

Last week, Guangdong Restaurant Association published an open letter to Meituan, saying that Meituan delivery has a market share of 60 to 90 per cent in Guangdong province… charges up to 26 per cent commission for newly-opened catering merchants. Meituan (HKG: 3690) on April 10 replies that more than 80 per cent of businesses on its platform pay a commission of between 10 per cent to 20 per cent. And it only earns ¥0.02 per delivery order (profit) in 2019Q4. // Sina | SCMP

China’s three biggest telecoms carriers join forces to introduce 5G-based messaging service 5G消息, introducing 5G-based rich communication services (RCS), competing with existing apps like Tencent’s WeChat. It will also allow organizations and firms to directly provide services to and communicate with users. // technode | White Paper

On April 10, Blackstone Chairman and CEO Schwartzman went on live with audience in China, with Hillhouse’s Lei Zhang and Vanke Liang Yu. Schwartzman brought his new book. The live-streaming is on Bytedance’s Toutiao and Douyin. // Sina | 36kr