Maoming’s Richest Man to Launch Another IPO

After CATL and EVE Energy, another lithium battery giant is going to IPO in Hong Kong.

Recently, Sunwoda Electronic Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Sunwoda) has officially submitted an application for listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with Goldman Sachs and CITIC Securities acting as joint sponsors.

Sunwoda was founded in 1997 by brothers Wang Mingwang and Wang Wei from Maoming, Guangdong. The company started with consumer batteries and later gradually expanded into automotive power batteries, energy storage, and other fields. In 2011, Sunwoda was successfully listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and in 2022, it was listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange through the issuance of GDRs. Now, Sunwoda is knocking on the door of the capital market for the third time.

As the company continues to grow and capital operations advance, the founder Wang Mingwang has also accumulated considerable wealth. According to the 2025 Hurun Global Rich List, Wang Mingwang and his wife Cai Diao rank 2,295th with a fortune of 11.5 billion yuan, becoming the newly crowned "richest person in Maoming."

The "grassroots" brothers started a business and built a lithium battery giant.

Reviewing Sunwoda's entrepreneurial story is a prime example of a "grassroots" rise to success.

Let’s first talk about the company’s founder, Wang Mingwang. Born in 1967, Wang Mingwang grew up in an ordinary family in Maoming, Guangdong. At the age of 17, he set off alone for Shenzhen with just a few dozen yuan his family had scraped together. At that time, the young Wang Mingwang was not content to be just an ordinary worker on the assembly line. So, he worked during the day and studied electronics on his own at night. Later, he enrolled in an advanced electronics program at Sun Yat-sen University, where he systematically studied for a year.

In 1992, Wang Mingwang attempted entrepreneurship for the first time, partnering with a friend to open a mold factory, but they quickly parted ways due to profit distribution issues. A year later, he regrouped and established Jialida Electronics Processing Factory, focusing on battery business for mobile phones and pagers. That summer, his 19-year-old cousin Wang Wei decisively joined, taking charge of sales. Although the factory initially turned a profit, it once again closed down due to differences in partnership philosophy.

After repeated failures, a turning point finally came in 1995. That year, a fire broke out at Sony's Fukushima battery plant, causing battery prices to skyrocket and creating a supply shortage in the market. Wang Mingwang keenly seized the opportunity, decisively invested all his savings to stock up and produce batteries, and then sold the labeled products to Sony, thereby earning his first significant profit.

In 1997, the two brothers invested all their assets to officially establish Sunwoda, focusing on battery module OEM/ODM. At that time, Konka Group, also located in Shenzhen, was planning to develop its own brand of mobile phones. Upon hearing the news, Wang Mingwang made several proactive visits and eventually secured the collaboration with a price 30% lower than the market rate.

With Konka Group's endorsement, Sunwoda subsequently gained momentum, gradually entering the supply chain systems of international brands such as Philips, Apple, Lenovo, and OPPO. During this period, the company's business also expanded from the initial assembly of pure battery modules to various key technical fields related to lithium battery module manufacturing.

In 2008, Sunwoda officially began its foray into the power battery sector. Subsequently, it entered the core cell segment by acquiring Dongguan Lithium. A casual glance at the active new energy vehicle manufacturers in the market today reveals that Li Auto, Xpeng, Leapmotor, GAC, SAIC, Nissan, and others are all clients of Sunwoda.

In terms of capital, in 2011, Sunwoda successfully went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, becoming the first listed company on the Growth Enterprise Market with lithium battery research, manufacturing, and sales as its main business. Over the subsequent decade, riding the wave of new energy, the company's performance achieved exponential growth, with its highest market value once approaching 100 billion RMB. In 2022, the company also rang the bell at the Swiss Exchange, raising approximately 3.1 billion RMB. As of August 29, Sunwoda's latest market value is 45.3 billion RMB.

Right now, this A-share lithium battery giant has once again arrived at the doors of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, officially embarking on its third journey to go public.

The world's largest mobile phone battery manufacturer, with an annual revenue of 56 billion yuan.

Up to now, Sunwoda's business mainly covers three major sectors: consumer batteries, power batteries, and energy storage.

Consumer batteries are mainly used in products such as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smart home devices, smart wearables, smart mobility devices, and service robots. According to data from CIC, based on 2024 shipment volumes, Sunwoda holds a 34.3% share of the global mobile phone battery market, ranking first worldwide; and a 21.6% share of the laptop and tablet battery market, ranking second globally. In terms of clients, all of the world’s top ten mobile phone manufacturers by sales volume in 2024 are customers of Sunwoda.

From the financial data, consumer batteries remain the company's solid "performance pillar." From 2022 to 2024, Sunwoda's revenue will be 52.162 billion yuan, 47.862 billion yuan, and 56.021 billion yuan, respectively; with profits during the period being 763 million yuan, 331 million yuan, and 534 million yuan. The revenue proportion from consumer batteries is 61.4%, 59.6%, and 54.3%, respectively.

In recent years, while maintaining its "core business" of consumer batteries, Sunwoda has been actively expanding into power battery and energy storage system businesses. The results are already evident—by 2024, Sunwoda has successfully ranked among the world’s top ten manufacturers of power batteries and energy storage batteries.

In terms of performance, the prospectus shows that from 2022 to 2024, the company's power battery business revenue increased from 12.687 billion yuan to 15.139 billion yuan, with its revenue proportion rising from 24.3% to 27%. The revenue from energy storage systems also rose steadily from 455 million yuan to 1.889 billion yuan, accounting for 3.4% of the total revenue in 2024.

Although the growth is impressive, for Sunwoda, industry competition is an inevitable and harsh reality. The current power battery industry has entered an oligopoly era—two giants, CATL and BYD, together occupy more than 60% of the market share.

In this context, Sunwoda is attempting to find new growth engines by "going overseas." It is understood that as early as 2023, Sunwoda invested nearly 2 billion yuan to initiate the construction of its first European battery factory in Hungary. Last year, they simultaneously advanced the Vietnam Lithium Power Project and the Thailand Power Plant.

Behind the continued expansion in overseas markets, a substantial amount of capital is inevitably required as support. In Sunwoda’s fundraising plan for its recent Hong Kong IPO, overseas investment has also been given a prominent position. According to the prospectus, the funds raised will be used to implement international growth strategies, expand new overseas production facilities, and strengthen the global sales and service network, in order to better reach the growing international customer base.

Capital market "veteran": has invested in a total of 73 companies.

In addition to this Hong Kong IPO, Sunwoda's other capital activities are also worth attention.

The most typical example is the spin-off of Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery Co., Ltd. On July 14, 2023, Sunwoda announced that it plans to spin off its subsidiary, Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery Co., Ltd., to list on the ChiNext board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Subsequently, in October, the official website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission showed that Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery Co., Ltd. had signed a listing counseling agreement with CITIC Securities, officially initiating the IPO process.

Sunwoda EVB was established in 2014 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sunwoda, focusing on automotive power batteries. Before announcing its spin-off, the company had completed three rounds of financing, each marked by the enthusiastic participation of groups of institutional investors.

As of June 2023, Sunwoda EVB has raised over 12 billion RMB in total financing, with investors including IDG, Shenzhen Capital Group, Source Code Capital, National Green Development Fund, Li Auto, NIO, XPeng, Meituan, and dozens of other well-known financial, state-owned, and industrial capital institutions.

Since the announcement of the spin-off listing plan, the market has not seen more substantial progress from Sunwoda Power. Instead, the news of its parent company's IPO in Hong Kong has attracted more attention.

It is worth mentioning that, like many leading companies in the lithium battery industry, Sunwoda is also enthusiastic about primary market investments. According to data from CVSource, as of now, Sunwoda has made 89 direct investments, investing in 73 companies, with a total investment amount exceeding 6.5 billion yuan. In addition, the company has also acted as an LP, investing in several institutions including Shangshi Capital, Dami Ventures, Xinghang Capital, and Liuhe Investment.

From an industry preference perspective, Sunwoda primarily focuses on industrial investment, with the majority of its funds directed towards battery and energy storage technology sectors. For instance, in June this year, the company participated as a Limited Partner (LP) by investing 27 million RMB in the Xinghang New Energy Fund managed by Xinghang Capital. Through the fund, it also made an equity investment in Haier New Energy, a subsidiary of the home appliance giant Haier.

Today, participating in equity investment has become one of the key means for enterprises to build ecosystems and enhance the resilience of their industrial chains. Market-oriented LPs like Sunwoda are precisely the crucial sources of capital that the primary market eagerly awaits.