Porsche IPO market value exceeds Ferrari, who can seize the market opportunity in the new super-running era？

On September 29th, Porsche was listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in Germany. On the same day, Porsche’s share price fell from the intraday high of 86.76 euros to the issue price and closed at 82.5 euros. On the first day of listing, the market value of Porsche was about 75.43 billion euros, slightly lower than that of audi ag, but it surpassed competitors such as Ferrari. According to the latest data, Porsche has become the fifth largest car company in the world by market value.

At this point, the world’s three super-running brands, Ferrari and Porsche, have all embarked on the road of capitalization, which has also triggered the imagination of Lotus.

At the beginning of this year, Lotus was also exposed to the listing information by foreign media. The official response said that Lotus Group was evaluating the stock market transactions in new york, London and China, and no relevant information was disclosed since then. Until the successful listing of Porsche, it once again aroused the interest of the outside world.

With the surge of hot money, perhaps Porsche IPO can be regarded as a landmark new node, but another more profound proposition has also been brought to the stage with Lotus’s "backwardness". Should we be in line with "money" or "front" in the new super-running era?

Porsche to the left, Lotus to the right

Judging from the news disclosed by foreign media, Lotus, as one of the three super-running brands in the world, has also moved the mind of IPO. Only in the top-level design at higher latitudes, there is something more important than IPO in the eyes of Lotus-anchoring the electrification transformation and opening a new track for pure electric intelligent super-running.

In fact, the listing of Ferrari and Porsche has provided a lot of funds for the group, and this kind of blood transfusion feedback has also been seen by the outside world.

Ferrari was originally a sub-brand of Fiat Chrysler (FCA). In 2015, Fiat divested Ferrari and obtained huge funds to repay Fiat’s debts. After Ferrari went public, its business developed well, and its share price soared. Now its market value is about $35 billion.

Today, Porsche will copy Ferrari’s path in the past, spin off from Volkswagen Group and go public independently, and even surpass the former in IPO scale and fundraising amount.

It is worth noting that for the Volkswagen Group, through this IPO, the preferred shares and original shares will be sold for 9.4 billion euros and 10.1 billion euros respectively, totaling 19.5 billion euros. 49% of the funds will be returned to shareholders in the form of special dividends, and the remaining nearly 9 billion euros will be used by Volkswagen Group to increase research and development of power batteries and in-vehicle software.

However, from the global securities market including A-shares, the attraction of IPO of automobile enterprises to capital lies not only in the current operating profit and sales volume, but also in the control and transformation of the future development direction with enterprises.

Although Tesla, which mainly focuses on pure electric intelligence, has just approached 1 million vehicles in annual sales, its global market value performance is actually four times that of Toyota, the second place with annual sales exceeding 10 million, and the third place is BYD, which started pure electric transformation as early as a decade ago and has completely stopped selling pure fuel vehicles.

In the domestic market, all auto listed companies related to the concept of new energy have made a lot of money in the securities market. Correspondingly, traditional automobile enterprises are experiencing a dark moment. In the past year, Ferrari’s share price has dropped from the highest $250 to the current $185, and its market value has shrunk by more than 25%.

From this perspective, perhaps the listing of Porsche at this time is not a good time. Although Porsche has already started the road of electric transformation, at present, only Taycan is a pure electric vehicle.

Ferrari only launched a brand-new electrification product strategy in June this year. Next, Ferrari will invest about 4.4 billion euros to develop pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles. In 2025, Ferrari’s first pure electric car will come out.

It must be said that in the face of the fierce tide of electrification, although brands such as Ferrari and Porsche are moving closer to new energy sources, the actions of transformation are somewhat conservative. However, Lotus has taken the courage to cross the rubicon. As early as 2019, it unveiled its first pure electric supercar Evija, and in 2021, it solemnly bid farewell to the fuel era with the sports car Emira. Now Lotus’s super-running pure electric SUV——Eletre, which takes the lead in electrification, has arrived as scheduled.

It can be said with certainty that Lotus has a firmer determination and a more thorough strategy on the road of electrification transformation. In Lotus’s view, only subversive self-innovation can rush to run in the new era of super-running. It can be predicted that in the near future, when Lotus truly leads the new super-running era, the IPO at that time will be much more valuable.

Join hands with Geely and deeply embrace the China market.

Inevitably, the electrification transformation often requires huge funds, which is why many new car-making forces have been seeking financing or IPO. For ultra-luxury brands such as Porsche and Ferrari, which are small in size but high in style, the capital investment for transformation is equally expensive.

In front of Lotus, "money" seems to be the most important part on the road of self-innovation and self-breakthrough. In June, 2017, after Geely Holding acquired 51% shares of Lotus from Proton, this English lotus flower began to bloom again in China.

In the second year after being acquired by Geely, Lotus announced that it had turned losses into profits in fiscal year 2016/2017, making the brand profitable for the first time in 40 years.

In October 2018, on the occasion of the brand’s 70th anniversary, Lotus released the "Vision 80" 10-year brand revival plan, and put forward the "Sino-British dual engine" strategy, which is a firm transformation to electrification and intelligence, and this is also an automobile enterprise that proposed formal electrification transformation earlier among traditional automobile brands.

On August 31, 2021, Wuhan Lotus Technology Co., Ltd. was formally established. Backed by Geely Group, Lotus’ initial capital plan for entering China was as high as RMB 26.3 billion. Among them, the global headquarters of Lotus Technology has settled in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, and in Shanghai, the Lotus Marketing Headquarters Building has also recently landed.

Prior to this, Lotus Technology announced the product planning for launching three pure electric smart models in the next five years: in 2022, the E-class SUV； codenamed Type132 will be launched; In 2023, the E-class four-door coupe codenamed Type133 was launched; In 2025, the D-class "pure electric intelligent new species" codenamed Type134 was launched. He also said: "With track-level intelligent driving, cutting into the intelligent driving track is the direction that Lotus Technology will set in the next decade, and it is also a completely different technical path from any other brand."

This year, on June 1st, Lotus Eletre ushered in its first show in China, and started booking in Chinese mainland. The first batch of vehicles is expected to be delivered as early as early as 2023. It is worth mentioning that it is not only the first SUV of Lotus, but also the first pure electric five-door production car and the first domestic car of Lotus. It is not uncommon for sports car manufacturers to build SUVs, but Lotus is the first one to build pure electric SUVs.

At present, Lotus Eleetre is a completely new car in China market, and its promotion and store communication should start from 0. However, under the background of Geely Automobile’s strong channel, the development of China market also allows Lotus Eleetre to avoid many detours.

At present, Lotus Eletre plans to open nearly 50 sales and service stores in about 20 cities in China by the end of this year, covering core cities such as Beishangguangshen, Hangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu, and radiating the whole country. It will also open two major services: "Smart Home Charging" and "Lotus Flash Charging", and plans to build nearly 200 self-operated high-end flash charging stations in about 20 cities across the country.

As the global headquarters of Lotus ultra-high-end intelligent electric lifestyle models, China bears extraordinary strategic significance. As the largest single market for most automobile brands in the world, it can be said that the China market is the best in the world.

From January to August this year, the domestic production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 3.97 million and 3.86 million respectively, and the market share reached 22.9%, exceeding the original expectation. Compared with other super-running brands, it can be said that Lotus’s electrification innovation based on the China market occupies a favorable time and place.

It is believed that under the new super-running era dominated by electrification and intelligence, the Lotus brand, which is deeply involved in the transformation and innovation of China market, will definitely take the lead in the future market competition.