Li Bin has raised funds again. NIO has received 7 billion yuan. Netizens: It still has to be Brother Bin.

Li Bin's ability to raise funds is still incredibly strong.

This time, it's at least $1 billion, equivalent to approximately 7.1 billion RMB.

Moreover, the way of raising funds this time is not the kind of "begging everywhere" but through a normal secondary offering of US stocks to raise capital.

According to the announcement released on September 10th, NIO announced the completion of a secondary offering of shares worth a total of $1 billion that night. It was issued within just a few hours, and many international capitals were actively involved. It seems that NIO's shares are very popular.

While everyone was still joking about whether NIO could survive this year, the capital market has once again cast a vote with real money.

01

More than 10 billion RMB has been raised this year

On September 10th, NIO announced its pricing plan for the $1 billion stock offering. This offering consists of a total of 182 million Class A ordinary shares of the company, including the issuance of American Depositary Shares.

Originally, NIO planned to complete the offering of American Depositary Shares around September 11, 2025, and the offering of ordinary shares around September 17, 2025.

As a result, on the night of September 10th, NIO announced the completion of the pricing for the $1 billion equity offering. The public offering price of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) was $5.57 per share, and the offering price of Class A ordinary shares was HK$43.36 per share.

As for what to do with the raised funds, NIO explained in the announcement that the net proceeds will be used for investing in the R & D of core technologies for intelligent electric vehicles, developing future technology platforms and models of its brands, expanding the battery swapping and charging network, further strengthening the balance sheet, and meeting general corporate operating needs.

However, it is worth mentioning that a source revealed that the goal of NIO's this round of financing is to ensure deliveries. The reason is that there are many orders, and more funds are needed to stock up on cars and pay the supply chain in advance to avoid limited production capacity due to insufficient funds.

Previously, the launch of the LeDao L60 failed to keep up with the production capacity due to a lack of funds for the core component - the battery, and finally missed the opportunity. For NIO, which is short of funds, it doesn't have the ability to prepay a large amount of money. So it makes sense for NIO to raise funds in advance to ensure the production capacity of the supply chain this time.

This is already the second large - scale "blood transfusion" this year. In March this year, NIO announced that it planned to place shares at a price of HK$29.46 per share, issuing no more than 118.79 million Class A ordinary shares, with a planned financing of HK$3.5 billion. Eventually, it raised HK$4.03 billion.

Just these two rounds of financing add up to more than 10 billion RMB. In fact, in addition to these two public financings, NIO has also received support from two Anhui state - owned assets and CATL this year. The investment amount from CATL alone reached 2.5 billion RMB.

Previously, capital entry was mainly concentrated in the domestic market. NIO emphasized that this round of financing has attracted well - known long - term investment institutions from the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, Asia, etc. The investors are more inclined to overseas, which also shows to a certain extent that the overseas capital market still has great confidence in NIO, a new Chinese car - making force.

02

What's the probability of making a profit in Q4?

Relying solely on financing for "blood transfusion" is obviously not a long - term solution. The capital market expects NIO to achieve self - hematopoietic. Since the second half of this year, Li Bin has said more than once that NIO will achieve profitability in Q4 this year.

As Q4 approaches, the probability of NIO achieving profitability is gradually becoming clearer.

Not long ago, Li Bin said at a closed - door meeting of NIO that more than 1% of the company's employees believe that the company can get out of the dilemma. NIO's second - quarter financial report shows that although the company's sales volume rebounded to 72,000 vehicles in the current period and various expenses decreased collectively, the overall gross profit margin was still lower than that of many new car - making forces, only 10.3%. Although the net loss narrowed by 26% quarter - on - quarter, it still suffered a loss of nearly 5 billion RMB.

Going from a loss of 5 billion RMB in the second quarter to achieving positive profitability in the fourth quarter seems almost an impossible task, and the outside world's doubts are reasonable.

However, in Li Bin's view, it is quite feasible. On the day after the release of the financial report, NIO held a small - scale media communication meeting at its Shanghai headquarters and presented a detailed "profit account":

In the fourth quarter, the monthly delivery volume should reach 50,000 vehicles, the gross profit margin should return to around 16% - 17%, and at the same time, the sales, general and administrative expenses and R & D expenses should be controlled within a reasonable range. That is to say, in the fourth quarter of this year, the total production capacity of NIO's three brands should reach an average of 56,000 vehicles per month to achieve the goal of a total quarterly sales volume of 150,000 vehicles.

"If the sales volume in the fourth quarter can reach 150,000 vehicles, I think there is still a chance to achieve profitability under the NON - GAAP standard," Li Bin said quite sincerely.

According to the profit formula given by Li Bin, let's take a look at NIO's latest second - quarter financial report and the guidance for the third quarter to see how likely it is for NIO to achieve profitability in Q4 as Li Bin said.

NIO delivered 72,056 vehicles in the second quarter, setting a new record, a year - on - year increase of 25.6% and a quarter - on - quarter increase of 71.2%. The revenue in the second quarter was 19.01 billion RMB, a year - on - year increase of 9.0% and a quarter - on - quarter increase of 57.9%.

The comprehensive gross profit margin in the second quarter was 10%, showing a certain improvement quarter - on - quarter. The gross profit margin of other sales in the second quarter turned positive, reaching 8.2%, setting a new record. However, NIO's net loss in the second quarter was 4.99 billion RMB, and the cash reserve increased to 27.2 billion RMB.

In August, NIO's deliveries exceeded 31,300 vehicles, setting a new record, a quarter - on - quarter increase of 49%. After 34 months, it surpassed Li Auto and returned to the top of the new car - making forces.

It's not difficult to see that the trend in the second quarter has improved significantly compared with the first quarter. NIO has also entered a new development cycle, and both sales and operations have returned to an upward trajectory.

The delivery guidance for the third quarter is 87,000 - 91,000 vehicles, and the revenue is expected to be between 21.8 billion and 22.2 billion RMB. There is only one month left in the third quarter, and there is no big problem with the sales volume. The sales volume in August exceeded 31,000 vehicles. With the increase in the production capacity of the LeDao L90 and the delivery of the NIO ES8, the sales volume in September will only increase.

However, Li Bin hopes for a monthly delivery volume of 50,000 vehicles, and the total delivery volume in the fourth quarter needs to reach 150,000 vehicles. Compared with the delivery guidance of 87,000 - 91,000 vehicles in the third quarter, the quarter - on - quarter increase reaches 65% - 73%. At present, the speed of production capacity ramp - up is difficult to support the monthly target of 50,000 vehicles.

Perhaps this is the original intention of NIO's financing at this time.

Another aspect is the gross profit margin. Li Bin's goal is for the group's comprehensive gross profit margin to reach 16% - 17%. Among them, the long - term goal for the NIO brand is 20% - 25%, for LeDao it is over 15%, and for Firefly it is around 10%. However, NIO's comprehensive gross profit margin in the second quarter was only 10.3%, with a gap of 6 - 7 percentage points from the target value.

According to Li Bin, as the proportion of high - gross - profit - margin products such as the L90 and ES8 in the overall product portfolio increases, it is an achievable goal to return the gross profit margin to 16% - 17% in Q4.

In addition, there is also the control of R & D and sales, general and administrative expenses. Li Bin said that the R & D expenses have been around 3 billion RMB per quarter in the past few years. After implementing the basic business unit CBU operation mechanism in the first quarter of this year, the calculations are more detailed, and the spending efficiency has been greatly improved. The R & D expenses will be controlled at around 2 billion RMB, achieving the same output as the previous investment of more than 3 billion RMB with improved efficiency.

The sales and management expenses can also be optimized and are expected to be controlled within 10% of the sales volume in the fourth quarter.

After careful calculation, Li Bin believes that there is a chance to achieve NON - GAAP profitability in the fourth quarter.

Looking at these adjustments, there is indeed great hope. NIO's huge ability to attract funds also shows that it still has great investment value. However, the market is changing rapidly, and other car companies are also seizing market share. Can Li Bin achieve his wish?

This article is from the WeChat official account "SuperEV - Lab" (ID: SuperEV - Lab). Author: Wang Lei, Editor: Qin Zhangyong. Republished by 36Kr with authorization.