Shandong Hengsheng Graphite Technology, a Chinese manufacturer of graphite for applications in sectors like semiconductors and photovoltaics (PVs), has reached a valuation of 5 billion yuan ($685 million) after the completion of its pre-IPO round.
The latest funding roped in financial investors including fund management arms of China’s financial services firm Galaxy Finance Group, as well as investment banks Orient Securities, and Kaiyuan Securities.
A fund-of-funds (FOF) backed by the local government in eastern China’s Shandong Province participated in the deal, alongside Shanghai-listed GRINM Semiconductor Materials, a semiconductor materials maker controlled by Japan’s semiconductor wafer reclamation firm RS Technologies.
As part of the deal, GRINM plans to cooperate with Shandong Hengsheng in product R&D and market expansion to help the investee advance its offerings in the semiconductor field, according to the statement.
Shandong Hengsheng, founded in 2014 with manufacturing plants across China, has delivered its graphite products to clients across the fields of semiconductors, PV, aerospace, industrial machinery, new materials, and new energy.
It claims to have long-term partnerships with a dozen large-scale listed companies such as the country’s solar model maker LONGi Green Energy Technology and solar developer JA Solar Technology.
The firm had raised 155 million yuan ($21.2 million) from strategic investors in 2022. Later the same year, it merged with Chengdu Haicheng Yuanchuang Technology, which runs factories in southwestern China capable of producing 10,000 tonnes of high-purity graphite powder and related products on a yearly basis.