Chint Group, a Chinese conglomerate with businesses across new energy and electrical equipment in over 140 countries and regions worldwide, ended the year with two of its subsidiaries raising billions of Chinese yuan in private financing.
China’s Cloudview Capital, a shareholder in the two subsidiaries, announced the completion of the deals this week. Cloudview Capital continued to back the latest investments as a lead investor.
This alternative asset management firm booked over 65 billion yuan ($9.4 billion) in accumulative assets under management (AUM), including its current AUM of more than 40 billion yuan ($5.8 billion). Established in 2011, it focuses on the industries of advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, new energy, consumption, and healthcare.
Chint Anneng nets $575m in Series B, B+ ahead of its planned listing
Chint Group’s affiliate Zhejiang Chint Anneng Power System Engineering Co Ltd, a digital energy firm providing rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems for households in rural China, pocketed nearly 4 billion yuan ($574.8 million) across two funding rounds.
The affiliate secured fresh capital for its Series B, B+ funding rounds. A group of China’s state-owned enterprises including the National Green Development Fund (NGDF), China-Russia Energy Fund, Hangzhou Industrial Investment Group (HIIG), and China Southern Power Grid Company Limited, one of the country’s two state-owned power system operators, invested in the round.
The completion of the Series B, and B+ rounds saw Chint Anneng reach a post-money valuation of over 30 billion yuan ($4.3 billion), Cloudview Capital said in a statement.
It represents a five-fold valuation for Chint Anneng in just 18 months. The firm was valued at 6 billion yuan ($865.4 million) after the completion of its Series A round at 1 billion yuan ($144.2 million) in July 2021. Cloudview Capital led the previous round, with participation from IDG Capital and Sequoia Capital China.
Founded in 2015 with 2.16 billion yuan ($311.5 million) in registered capital, Chint Anneng claims to have served a total of 800,000 households in China as of early December 2022.
Its appeal in the private market comes as the firm is poised to file for an initial public offering (IPO). Chint Electrics, its Shanghai-listed holding company, announced in a stock exchange filing in late October its plans of spinning off Chint Anneng to prepare the firm for a public listing.
Chint Electrics said that the plans were still in the preliminary preparation phase, without disclosing the expected listing timeframe and location.
Chint Solar raises $216m in Series B from Hillhouse, others
In a separate development, Chint Solar, another Chint Group affiliate engaged in energy supply, storage, transmission and distribution, closed 1.5 billion yuan ($216.3 million) in its Series B funding round.
The fresh capital, which will help the firm expand its production capacity, came from investors including Asia’s private equity (PE) giant Hillhouse Capital Group, CICC Capital, and Ori-Mind Capital.
Founded in 2006 and also known as Astronergy, Chint Solar specialises in the R&D, production, and sales of high-efficiency crystalline silicon PV cells and PV modules.
The firm runs smart manufacturing facilities in Chinese cities like Haining, Yancheng, Jiuquan, as well as in Thailand, while its sales network covers the global market including countries such as Germany, Spain, the US, Canada, Brazil, Singapore, and Japan.
Chint Solar was also divested from the parent group in April 2022, as Chint Group looked to focus on its key business line of manufacturing low-voltage electric appliances through Chint Electrics amid “drastic price fluctuations” in PV raw materials, said Shanghai-listed Chint Electrics in a stock exchange filing at the time.