Tight Capital Chain, Tongde Chemical PBAT Plans to Introduce Strategic Investor

According to the report from the Bioplastics Research Institute, on July 28, Tongde Chemical (002360.SZ) revealed in response to investor inquiries on the interactive platform that the company is actively engaging with industrial investors and financial investors to introduce their participation in the investment of the PBAT new materials industry chain integration project.

Image source: Tongde Chemical

The integrated industrial chain project for the new PBAT material was launched in 2021 and serves as a core strategic project in Tongde Chemical's transformation process. With a total investment of approximately 3.5 billion yuan, the project includes production lines with an annual output of 60,000 tons of polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) and 240,000 tons of 1,4-butanediol (BDO).

The PBAT project was originally scheduled to start production in October 2024; however, due to tight cash flow, the production date has been postponed multiple times. As of June 2025, the project completion rate has reached 95.5%, but equipment commissioning still requires financial support.

According to the company's financial data, the financial report for the first quarter of 2025 shows that the company achieved revenue of 112 million yuan, with a net profit attributable to shareholders of 10.31 million yuan. The asset-liability ratio for the first quarter was 57.11%. The performance forecast for the first half of 2025 indicates that the net profit attributable to shareholders will be between 6.5 million yuan and 9.5 million yuan, which suggests that the operating performance in the second quarter continues to deteriorate. In this context, connecting with investors is undoubtedly a reasonable choice to alleviate financial pressure.

On July 28, the company and its wholly-owned subsidiary Tongde Kechuang Materials Co., Ltd. had a combined overdue debt of 50.63 million yuan. However, the company has signed supplementary agreements with multiple financial institutions to adjust the repayment plan, with part of the payments postponed to be made between late August and late September.

To raise funds, Tongde Chemical has previously made various attempts. In 2023, the company tried to finance through private placements and also generated 350 million yuan in profits by selling civilian explosive assets, specifically by transferring equity in Guangling Tongde and Tongmeng Chemical, in order to divest non-core businesses and focus on transformation and development.

On the evening of May 20, Tongde Chemical announced that it plans to transfer up to 45% of the equity in each of its three civil explosive subsidiaries—Shanxi Tongde Civil Explosives Co., Ltd., Shanxi Tongde Blasting Engineering Co., Ltd., and Xinzhou Tongde Civil Explosives Materials Management Co., Ltd.—to Inner Mongolia Shenglili Civil Explosives Co., Ltd. The proceeds from this transaction will be used for the construction of the company’s ongoing fully biodegradable plastics integration project and for optimizing its debt structure.

On June 25, Tongde Chemical stated that the Xinzhou municipal government has organized financial institutions to establish a creditors' committee and requested banks to "not withdraw loans, renew loans, or reduce interest rates," while also coordinating debt extensions. This measure has directly alleviated the company's short-term debt repayment pressure.

However, the company still faces some disputes. In May this year, Tongde Chemical became involved in a dispute with Far East International Leasing Co., Ltd. over a financial leasing contract. On July 21, due to another contract dispute with Qingdao Huatong Financial Leasing Co., Ltd., the company’s bank accounts were frozen twice.