With less than 500 million yuan in monetary funds, 300863 invests 100 million yuan to enter the humanoid robot market, and its stock price has risen by over 50% this year.
"The first stock of Chinese automotive cables," Cabye (300863.SZ), is set to increase its layout in the humanoid robot business.
On the evening of November 5th, Cabye announced that to accelerate the R & D process and business layout of its projects for humanoid robot components, the company used 100 million yuan of its own funds to invest in the establishment of a wholly - owned subsidiary, Shanghai Cabye Robot Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Cabye Robot"), and has completed the industrial and commercial registration procedures.
Journalists from Times Weekly noticed that 100 million yuan is not a small amount for Cabye. As of the end of the third quarter, Cabye had 435 million yuan in monetary funds on its books, while its current liabilities exceeded 2.1 billion yuan.
Regarding whether the company's cash flow would be tightened as a result, a staff member from Cabye's securities department told journalists from Times Weekly on November 6th: "The industrial and commercial registration of the company is based on the subscribed capital system, and the registered capital does not need to be paid in full immediately."
It is worth noting that Cabye only established its "Robot Division" in March this year, venturing into the field of humanoid robot cables, and it has been less than 8 months to date. At the same time, Cabye is also promoting the layout of emerging businesses such as high - frequency and high - speed cables and low - altitude aircraft cables.
As of the close on November 6th, Cabye's stock rose 0.34% to 50.27 yuan per share, with a total market value of 9.46 billion yuan, and its stock price has risen by more than 50% this year.
△ Image source: Choice Financial Terminal
Less than 8 months in the market
Before the establishment of Cabye Robot, Cabye had been in the humanoid robot field for less than 8 months.
On March 18th this year, Cabye stated on its official website that it had recently held an internal strategic decision - making meeting and decided to establish a "Robot Division" to explore the technological advantages of its existing automotive cables and layout the humanoid robot cable industry.
Cabye believes that in the field of new energy vehicle cables, as a cable supplier to leading enterprises such as Xiaomi, Tesla, and Seres, it has been deeply integrated into the intelligent and electrified automotive industry chain. These customers are accelerating their layout in the humanoid robot industry outside of the automotive field, opening up a natural industrial extension channel for the company. Cabye's independently developed cable patent technologies such as high - temperature resistance, bending resistance, and high shielding performance can also meet the requirements of humanoid robots for the bending resistance of flexible cables.
In April, Cabye carried out technical cooperation and exchanges on robot cables with XPeng Motors. Cabye said that its solutions can be widely adapted to the strict requirements of current humanoid robots for cable high - frequency bending resistance, resistance to extreme temperature changes, lightweight integration, etc., and the product performance can also meet international certifications such as UL, CE, and RoHS.
According to Cabye's semi - annual report, the company's Robot Division and high - standard robot cable laboratory can conduct testing projects for robot cables such as bending extrusion tests, drag chain tests, bending tests, 2D torsion tests, and 3D torsion tests, meeting the testing requirements for products such as industrial supporting drag chain cables and flexible cables.
In October, Lin Guangyao, the chairman of Cabye, led a team to conduct in - depth investigations and research on several humanoid robot industry chain enterprises and visited Matrix Ultra - Intelligent Robot.
Now, Cabye has officially established a wholly - owned subsidiary to increase its layout in the humanoid robot business.
According to Cabye's announcement, the company plans to develop, produce, and sell humanoid robot component products through the establishment of Cabye Robot. Cabye Robot will serve as an independent operating entity for the company's robot business, laying a foundation for the company to continuously increase its investment in the humanoid robot business and promote the development of its humanoid robot business.
Ding Shaojiang, the chief analyst of GKURC Industrial Economics Think Tank, analyzed to journalists from Times Weekly on November 6th: "Automotive cables have strict requirements for high - temperature resistance, wear resistance, and electromagnetic interference resistance. These mature technologies can be directly transferred to the humanoid robot field, which has extremely high requirements for stability and safety, reducing the R & D threshold. In addition, the supply chain can also be reused and coordinated to ensure quality and cost control."
435 million yuan in monetary funds on the books, current liabilities exceeding 2.1 billion yuan
Cabye is a professional provider of high - end automotive cable products and services. The company was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in August 2020, becoming the first domestic A - share listed company in the automotive cable industry in China and is known as "the first stock of Chinese automotive cables".
In recent years, Cabye's performance has been relatively stable. From 2022 to 2024, the company achieved revenues of 2.948 billion yuan, 3.452 billion yuan, and 3.648 billion yuan respectively; and net profits attributable to the parent company of 140 million yuan, 166 million yuan, and 162 million yuan respectively. With the continuous expansion of the company's sales scale, in the first three quarters of this year, the company's revenue increased by 11.11% year - on - year to 2.854 billion yuan; and the net profit attributable to the parent company increased by 5.01% year - on - year to 138 million yuan.
Behind this large - scale investment in the establishment of Cabye Robot, Cabye is facing certain financial pressure.
According to Cabye's third - quarter report, as of the end of the third quarter, the company had 435 million yuan in monetary funds on its books. The company's current liabilities were approximately 2.133 billion yuan, including short - term borrowings of 1.347 billion yuan, notes payable and accounts payable of 231 million yuan, and non - current liabilities due within one year of 514 million yuan.
Calculated based on the financial data in Cabye's third - quarter report, the company's current ratio is 1.18, and the quick ratio is 0.94.
In response, the above - mentioned Cabye staff explained: "This is due to the particularity of the automotive cable industry in which the company is located. 85% - 90% of the company's raw materials are copper. Therefore, the company has to bear a three - month copper payment period, and many of the company's liabilities have actually been converted into copper."
In terms of operating cash flow, this indicator of Cabye has significantly improved. In the first three quarters of this year, the net cash flow from operating activities was 166 million yuan, compared with - 28.73 million yuan in the same period last year.
Journalists from Times Weekly noticed that Cabye is accelerating the expansion of its production capacity. As of the end of the third quarter, the balance of the company's construction in progress was 310 million yuan, a year - on - year increase of 499.35% compared with the beginning of the year, mainly due to the construction of the third - phase factory in Mexico and the renovation and expansion project of the Ningbo factory. The company has launched a plan to issue convertible corporate bonds to unspecified objects, planning to raise no more than 600 million yuan, which will be invested in the Shanghai high - speed copper cable project, the Mexican automotive cable and high - speed copper cable production base project, and the Ningbo automotive cable renovation project.
High - speed copper cables are mainly used in fields such as data centers, cloud computing, 5G communications, and artificial intelligence (AI). Cabye said that in the next two to three years, it will continuously increase its investment in the high - speed copper cable field, accelerate the progress of product customer certification, and continuously conduct new product R & D to launch products that meet the needs of customers and the industry, bringing new revenue and profit growth points to the company.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Times Weekly" (ID: timeweekly), author: Song Yiting, published by 36Kr with authorization.