According to the latest announcement of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Western Superconductor (831628), a company on the New Third Board, passed the meeting smoothly, thus making Western Superconductor the first company to successfully break through the Science and Technology Innovation Board among the undelisted enterprises on the New Third Board.

 

Prior to this, Nanwei Medical and TIANZHUN Technology, which had passed the meeting, had been listed on the New Third Board. At present, TZTEK's IPO registration application has been approved by the CSRC.

 

As the "candidate" of this period, Western Superconductor took only 2019 days from its application acceptance (April 4, 15) to the successful meeting, and it is also the fastest NEEQ company. At the same time, it later came to the top, surpassing Jiangsu Beiren, who was the first to be accepted, and became the first stock on the new third board in the science and technology innovation board.

 

 

 

Before the IPO was suspended, the stock price soared 115%

 

Western Superconductor is not new to the capital markets. With strong scientific research strength and shareholder background, Western Superconductor has long been well-known in the new third board market.

 

According to the data, Western Superconducting Material Technology Co., Ltd. was established in February 2003, landed on the New Third Board in December 2, and currently has 2014 market makers.

 

Western Superconductor belongs to the national strategic emerging industry - new materials, mainly engaged in high-end titanium alloy materials and low-temperature superconducting materials research and development, production and sales, the main customers are Aviation Industry Corporation of China, China International Nuclear Fusion Energy Plan Implementation Center, etc., the main products are used in the field of national defense industry and new energy.

 

Its largest shareholder is the Northwest Nonferrous Metals Research Institute, and the actual controller is the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Finance. It is worth mentioning that Shenzhen Venture Capital holds 12.74% of the shares of Western Superconductor, making it its third largest shareholder.

 

 

Since its listing on the New Third Board, Western Superconductor has implemented two additional issuances, raising more than 10 billion yuan, and institutional investors, including a number of asset management plans, have participated in the subscription of Western Superconductor shares.

 

In fact, as early as mid-December 2018, at the "Dragon Gate Action" plan promotion meeting held in Xi'an, Wang Li, deputy director of the Xi'an Municipal Financial Office, said that Shaanxi local high-tech enterprises are expected to land on the science and technology innovation board through the registration system, and the list of the first batch of 12 enterprises in Xi'an to be listed on the science and technology innovation board has been selected and recommended.

 

According to media reports at the time, one of them was Western Superconductivity. This also makes its shares sought after by investors. In fact, since the introduction of the science and technology innovation board, Western Superconductor's stock price has been rising.

 

Western Superconductor's share price began to rebound in November last year, rising all the way from 11.5 yuan to 68 yuan. As of the trading day before the suspension of trading on February 13, Western Superconductor's stock price closed at 2.20 yuan, which has rebounded 12% from its low, and the total market value is 21.115 billion yuan.

 

 

As of June 2019, 6, the number of shareholders of Western Superconductor has increased from 11 at the end of the third quarter of 2018 to 414.

 

 

However, on June 6, Western Superconductor issued an announcement that it would apply to the stock transfer company to terminate the listing after the meeting.

 

With "three types of shareholders" bravely entered the science and technology innovation board

 

It is worth noting that before the successful meeting of Western Superconductor, the Shanghai Stock Exchange paid attention to asking questions about its "three types of shareholders". But in the end, its "three types of shareholders" did not penetrate.

 

In the first round of inquiries, Western Superconductor was asked whether there were three types of shareholders.

 

 

In this regard, Western Superconductor disclosed in detail the shareholding of 18 three types of shareholders, of which 3 were formed by directional issuance of shares in the stock transfer system in July 2015, and 7 were formed by market-making transactions. The 15 third-class shareholders hold a total of 18.425 million shares, accounting for 1.07% of the company's total share capital, which is a smaller proportion.

 

According to the reply, except for 4 companies that have not yet obtained transitional period arrangements, the remaining 14 companies have made transitional rectification plans in accordance with the Guiding Opinions. These four three types of shareholders hold a total of 4,9 shares, with a total shareholding ratio of only 2.0%.

 

Western Superconductor also said that the controlling shareholders, directors, supervisors and related personnel did not directly or indirectly hold interests in the three types of shareholders.

 

At the same time, it also emphasized: "The total number of shareholders of the three categories does not exceed 1% of the total number of shares of the company, and none of them has issued relevant commitments to reduce their holdings or stabilize the stock price, so they are not subject to the existing reduction rules." ”

 

In subsequent inquiries, the SSE did not ask questions about the three types of shareholders.

 

As the IPO New Deal no longer requires "three types of shareholders" to make penetrating disclosures, it is expected that more and more NEEQ companies will benefit from this in the future and feel free to bring "three types of shareholders" into battle. Now, Western Superconductivity is off to a good start.

 

Known as the "hidden champion" in the field of superconductivity

 

When it was revealed that Western Superconductor was going to the science and technology innovation board, investment bankers once said that from multiple dimensions, Western Superconductor, as a "hard technology" enterprise with core technology, has strong growth and technological innovation capabilities, which meets the positioning requirements of the science and technology innovation board.

 

According to the prospectus, in the field of titanium alloys, a variety of new titanium alloys independently developed by Western Superconductor have filled a number of gaps in China and ensured the supply of key materials urgently needed by the country. Among them, the three main types of new titanium alloys have become the backbone titanium alloys for China's aviation and aerospace structural parts, providing core materials for the first flight and mass production of China's new fighters and transport aircraft.

 

Moreover, Western Superconductor has realized the complete localization of Ti45Nb and other alloy materials, solved the "stuck neck" problem of riveting materials for China's special materials, and is one of the only two companies in China and the global mass production of Ti45Nb titanium alloy materials.

 

In the field of superconductivity, the issuer is the only enterprise in China that realizes the commercial production of superconducting wire, and is also the only full-process production enterprise of niobium-titanium (NbTi) ingot rod and wire in the world, and has mastered the full-process production technology of NbTi ingot rod to wire, and has completely independent intellectual property rights.

 

Industry insiders call it the "hidden champion" in the field of superconductivity.

 

From 2016 to 2018, Western Superconductor achieved operating income of 9 million yuan, 53 million yuan and 9.46 billion yuan respectively. Among them, the sales of high-end titanium alloy materials are its main source of income, and the revenue of this part of the business has increased from 10% in 63 to 2016.77% in 2018.

 

 

 

It is planned to raise 8 million yuan to increase the field of superalloys

 

Regarding the "scientific and technological innovation content" issue that the Shanghai Stock Exchange is particularly concerned about, Western Superconductor said in response to an inquiry that it has 316 patents. Among them, 103 are national defense patents and 213 are non-defense patents, and the above patent rights are all in the validity period. The issuer can maintain the advanced nature of technology through its own R&D and production, and there is no significant risk of technological iteration.

 

According to the prospectus, relying on the scientific research background of Northwest Nonferrous Metal Institute, Western Superconductor has gathered a group of cutting-edge talents in the industry, and established a professional R&D team of superconducting materials and rare metal materials with 6 academicians as consultants, experts with special government allowances of the State Council, members of the National Nuclear Fusion Technology Commission, and young and middle-aged experts with outstanding contributions from the state or Shaanxi Province.

 

By the end of 2018, there were 164 superconducting R&D personnel in the west, accounting for 21.27%.

 

From 2016 to 2018, the R&D investment of Western Superconductivity was 6384.32 million yuan, 8798.18 million yuan and 9051.29 million yuan, accounting for 6.53%, 9.10% and 8.32% of the current operating income, respectively.

 

 

Western Superconductor has said that a sustained high level of R&D investment is the basis for the company to maintain its technological leadership.

 

In this IPO of the Science and Technology Innovation Board, Western Superconductor plans to issue no more than 4420.8 million shares and raise 5 million yuan. Among them, about <> million yuan will be used for superalloy materials and powder tray projects. Superalloys are key materials for the hot end of aero engines and gas turbines.

 

 

It is worth noting that in the field of superalloys, Western Superconductor has achieved a small amount of supply, and its product performance has reached the domestic advanced level, and it is expected to become a new growth point in the future.

 

At present, the production capacity of Western Superconductor's high-performance nickel-based superalloy bar project is 2600 tons of high-temperature alloy ingots and 2000 tons of bars, which is difficult to meet the needs of China's localization of high-temperature alloy materials in high-end fields such as aircraft engines and gas turbines.

 

With this fundraising, Western Superconductor plans to expand the production capacity of superalloys and further improve its core competitiveness in the field of superalloys.

 

According to the analysis of Huatai Securities Research Report, the average annual demand for superalloys driven by China's military aviation market in the next 10 years is about 6 million US dollars, and the average annual demand for superalloys driven by China's civil aviation market in the next 03 years is about 20.36 billion US dollars.