The first humanoid robot stock is here! IPO today, raising up to 1.3 billion!

01 UBTECH countdown to ringing the bell

Shenzhen UBTECH Robotics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as UBTECH) issued an announcement today to launch its public offering, which will end on December 22, and is expected to be listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 29 with the stock code "9880".

This means that the first stock of humanoid robots will soon be decided, and UBTECH may firmly take the top spot in the domestic humanoid robot market.

According to the official announcement, UBTECH will issue 11.282 million shares in this IPO, of which 1.1282 million shares will be sold in Hong Kong and 10.1538 million shares will be allocated internationally. The issue range is HK$86 to HK$116 per share, with 50 shares per lot, which means a maximum fundraising of HK$1.309 billion (approximately RMB 1.2 billion).

It is worth mentioning that this issuance is endorsed by state-owned institutions.

Yizhuang International Holdings (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., a state-owned enterprise under the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, will serve as a cornerstone investor and invest RMB 500 million (approximately equivalent to HKD 545 million), accounting for 47.8% of the total offering shares (based on the final offering price of HKD 101 per share, assuming that the over-allotment option is not exercised).

Obviously, in the field of humanoid robots, which has broad prospects and is highly technology- and capital-intensive, UBTECH, which took the lead in layout, has won the favor of the "national team".

The luxurious list of shareholders includes not only well-known VCs and technology giants such as Qiming Venture Partners, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Tencent, but also state-owned institutions such as Chongqing Chengwei, Liuzhou Industrial Fund, and Zhuhai Science and Technology Innovation. According to the disclosure announcement, the company's controlling shareholder has promised not to reduce its holdings in the next year.

02 Why UBTECH?

In fact, in the field of humanoid robots, UBTECH is one of the few companies that has mastered both technology and business and has accumulated certain experience in both.

As of June 30, 2023, UBTECH has launched more than 50 categories of products, with sales of robot products exceeding 760,000 units. Its service areas cover more than 50 countries and regions around the world, with more than 900 corporate customers.

According to the prospectus, from fiscal year 2020 to the first six months of 2023, UBTECH's operating income was approximately RMB 740 million, RMB 817 million, RMB 1.008 billion, RMB 284 million, and RMB 261 million, respectively.

Overall, UBTECH's revenue growth trend is good.

Revenues surrounding humanoid robots are also continuing to grow.

In 2022, the revenue of customized humanoid robot business represented by the Walker series reached 51.84 million yuan, more than three times the year-on-year growth, accounting for 5.1% of the total revenue; in the first six months of 2023, this figure also reached 7.24 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 64%.

In contrast to the growth in revenue, there was a significant increase in R&D investment.

Data shows that as a technology pioneer, UBTECH invests a large amount of money in product research and development every year. In the past three years, the company's R&D expenditure exceeded 1.8 billion yuan, and the R&D expenses in fiscal years 2022-2022 accounted for 58%, 63% and 42% respectively, almost half of its revenue was invested in R&D.

Of the funds raised from this issuance, approximately 47% will be used to enhance R&D and product strength, which means that the company's fundraising focus this time is still on products, and also confirms UBTECH's determination in technological innovation.

In fact, it is precisely because of years of investment and accumulation that UBTECH has been able to build a full-stack technology system, form certain technological barriers, and occupy a leading position in the field of humanoid robots.

In the "Humanoid Robot Technology Patent Analysis Report" recently released by the People's Daily Research Institute, UBTECH's number of valid humanoid robot technology patents reached 763, successfully winning the championship, with a gap of nearly 100 from Honda, which ranked second. It also ranked first in the world in patent application activity, winning the "double championship".

It can be said that in terms of patents, UBTECH is indeed "far ahead" of its domestic peers. From this perspective, this IPO will help UBTECH further expand its core business and consolidate and expand its market position.

03 What is the significance of UBTECH’s listing?

The industrialization process from science fiction to reality

Humanoid robots, a concept originating from science fiction movies, are moving towards reality at an astonishing speed.

The so-called humanoid robot is a robot that is made based on the human body structure and can walk, communicate and even think like humans. It is considered to be the ultimate form of development of robotics technology and represents the perfect leap from "machine" to "human".

Although humanoid robots are not a new concept, this year, the humanoid robot industry has ushered in a huge explosion driven by continuous breakthroughs in many key technologies such as algorithms, chips, sensors , and actuators.

In addition to the "old players" such as UBTECH and Boliye who continue to make efforts, show up at exhibitions and launch new products, new energy and Internet technology giants such as Xpeng, Baidu, and Byte have also entered the market to grab a piece of the market.

In March, GPT-4, which takes generative artificial intelligence to a new level, was released. Its appearance will greatly enhance the interactive experience and intelligence level of humanoid robots, and the concept of embodied intelligence has become popular on the entire Internet.

In June, UBTECH Robotics and Tianqi Robotics, a provider of automotive production line integration solutions, established a joint venture to focus on the development of humanoid robots for industrial manufacturing. This is an important sign that humanoid robots are moving towards industrial applications.

In August, Huawei's talented young man Zhihui Jun officially unveiled his embodied intelligent robot Yuanzheng A1. Since then, Zhiyuan Robotics has been making great strides. Now, it has completed 5 rounds of financing, and the company's valuation has soared to 3.5 billion. The field of humanoid robots has added another heavyweight "new player".

In September, the pre-sale of Boliye Intelligent Universal Humanoid Robot GR-1 started, marking the first step in the mass production of humanoid robots and filling the gap in the domestic market.

In October, Xiaopeng's bipedal humanoid robot PX5 made its debut, demonstrating its excellent hard foundation and soft power, and once again brought the topic of "the end point of car manufacturing is robots" back into people's attention.

In December, Tesla suddenly released the second-generation Optimus humanoid robot, which can do yoga, squat, hold eggs, and dance, bringing the concept of "AI+humanoid robot" to a climax!

……

A series of events show that humanoid robots are accelerating from scenes in science fiction movies to reality.

Verify the business model and take a key step towards industrialization

Previously, the humanoid robot industry was still in the incubation period, and the relevant models had yet to be commercially verified. UBTECH's listing on the stock market marks that the company's commercial value has been recognized by the capital market, and the commercialization process of humanoid robots will be significantly accelerated.

Currently, humanoid robot companies mainly operate commercially through the following two models:

Enterprise market: B-end first

Such customers mainly include industrial manufacturing companies, as well as service industry companies such as banks, hotels, and shopping malls. Humanoid robots can be used in production line inspection, customer service, security, and other positions.

B-end users' purchasing decisions are more rational. They will fully consider product quality and cost-effectiveness. The large order volume is conducive to humanoid robot companies to achieve large-scale production. Therefore, this type of market is the key area for the first batch of commercialization.

Consumer market: C-end potential to be unlocked

Compared with corporate users, the acceptance and demand of general consumers are still relatively limited. At present, the main functions of consumer-grade humanoid robots are still limited to companionship and entertainment, and the prices are also relatively high, which restricts the rapid expansion of the market scale.

However, in the medium and long term, the consumer market has huge potential. With the continuous optimization of cost performance and continuous improvement of functions, humanoid robots are expected to become a consumer technology product worth hundreds of billions of yuan in the future. Therefore, this is a battleground for humanoid robot companies.

UBTECH has taken the lead in the race and has deployed in both automation and service fields.

From the perspective of UBTECH's product matrix, it has basically covered major application scenarios such as education, medical rehabilitation, and commercial services, such as the Alpha and Wukong series robots for the education field, and Walker for high-end customized services.

Data shows that in the field of educational service robots , UBTECH is already the leading supplier with the highest market share in China, with a market share of 22.5% in 2022.

In fact, UBTECH has also taken the lead in the entire service robot market.