Spending 1.6 billion yuan on a "H acquires A" scenario, Ubtech fills in the manufacturing puzzle.

While industrial orders are pouring in, Ubtech, known as the "first stock of humanoid robots," has received a significant new piece of news.

On December 24th, Ubtech issued an announcement stating that it plans to acquire 43% of the total shares of Fenglong Co., Ltd., a listed company on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, through a combination of "agreement transfer + tender offer." In this transaction, both the share transfer price and the tender offer price are set at 17.72 yuan per share. This represents a 10% discount compared to Fenglong Co., Ltd.'s closing price of 19.68 yuan per share before the trading halt on December 17th. Based on this calculation, the total consideration amounts to 1.665 billion yuan.

Upon completion of the transaction, the controlling shareholder of Fenglong Co., Ltd. will change from Chengfeng Investment to Ubtech, and the actual controller will become Zhou Jian, the founder and CEO of Ubtech.

In the view of "Node AI Insights," humanoid robots are still in the early stage of large - scale implementation. Ubtech's substantial acquisition of Fenglong Co., Ltd. is conducive to improving its own industrial chain, enhancing manufacturing and supply capabilities, and raising the competitive barrier. It also marks the strategic upgrade of the enterprise from being technology - driven to an industry - integrated development model.

01 Completing the Manufacturing Puzzle, Ubtech Expands Its Circle of Friends

From a strategic perspective, Ubtech's acquisition of a partial stake in Fenglong Co., Ltd. is an important step from technology development to production capacity implementation.

First, looking at the most direct synergistic effect, Fenglong Co., Ltd.'s mature manufacturing and supply chain capabilities can help Ubtech improve manufacturing efficiency and cost - control capabilities.

As is well - known, robot delivery is a significant test for an enterprise's mature production and manufacturing system. Now that Ubtech has secured many large commercial orders, perhaps the most urgent issue it needs to address is delivery.

In what is widely recognized as the "Year of Humanoid Robot Delivery," Ubtech's industrial humanoid robot Walker S2 has continuously won multiple large - scale orders, with the total order amount exceeding 1.3 billion yuan. It has become one of the most popular humanoid robot enterprises in terms of commercial implementation.

For example, on December 14th, Texas Instruments in the United States officially reached a strategic cooperation with Ubtech. Texas Instruments has purchased Ubtech's industrial humanoid robot Walker S2 and is currently deploying and debugging it on its production line. In November, mass production and delivery of Ubtech's industrial humanoid robot Walker S2 began, and the first batch of hundreds of Walker S2 units were put into practical applications in industries such as automobile manufacturing, intelligent manufacturing, smart logistics, and embodied intelligence data centers.

The sharp increase in orders will inevitably pose a huge challenge to Ubtech's supply chain.

It is understood that in terms of production capacity, the current monthly production capacity of Walker S2 has exceeded 300 units, and the expected annual delivery volume in 2025 will exceed 500 units. In addition, Ubtech has set a new goal to increase the production capacity of industrial humanoid robots to 10,000 units in 2026.

Although Ubtech has built a strong supply chain system through cooperation with multiple core suppliers and the construction of its own super factory. According to the forecast of Southern Wealth, the market scale of humanoid robots in China will reach 870 billion yuan in 2030. As market demand increases, if Ubtech wants to continue to play an important role in the future robot industry, it is necessary to make breakthroughs in production capacity.

Fenglong Co., Ltd., established in 2003, has become a timely "helping hand" for Ubtech.

According to official information, Fenglong Co., Ltd. has five subsidiaries, namely Zhejiang Haolong Electric Co., Ltd., Dushang Precision Machinery Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Fenglong Technology Co., Ltd., Hangzhou Fenglong Technology Co., Ltd., and Fenglong Motor Hong Kong Co., Ltd. It is mainly engaged in the manufacturing of garden machinery, engines, hydraulic control systems, and automobile parts, and has a certain foundation in terms of a mature manufacturing system, supply chain management, and large - scale production capabilities.

Ubtech can leverage Fenglong Co., Ltd.'s strong supply chain capabilities to make up for the manufacturing capabilities in the mass - production stage of robots. Combining Fenglong's production foundation, Ubtech is expected to improve cost - effectiveness in component procurement, process optimization, and large - scale production, form economies of scale, and enhance the cost competitiveness of its products.

In addition to cost reduction and efficiency improvement, Ubtech can also leverage Fenglong Co., Ltd.'s own resources to enhance its core technology competitiveness and industrial synergy performance.

Technological progress is not achieved overnight. Moving from laboratory prototypes to factory production lines and then to achieving large - scale mass production with high precision involves two completely different industrial logics. What manufacturers need is not just cutting - edge technology, but robots that can provide solutions to the pain points of industrial scenarios. In the observation of "Node AI Insights," this is not a problem that robot enterprises can solve in isolation. As a technology innovator, only by collaborating with manufacturing giants and getting deeply involved in production lines can targeted solutions be developed.

In fact, the trend in the industry is already obvious.

Recently, robot enterprise Galaxy Universal and manufacturing giant Baida Precision Machinery have reached a cooperation consensus on core hardware innovation and supply chain optimization. Galaxy Universal will introduce Baida Precision Machinery's technological achievements in the field of core components to build an independent, controllable, and highly coordinated industrial ecosystem.

Therefore, Ubtech's strategic intention in acquiring Fenglong Co., Ltd. is clearly visible. Ubtech can integrate the core technology of humanoid robots, hardware manufacturing and production, and supply chain management into one system, which is conducive to promoting the commercial implementation of robots and enhancing industrial synergy capabilities.

In addition, Fenglong Co., Ltd.'s existing business covers the industrial manufacturing supply chain and customer resources. Ubtech can use this to expand its sales channels and market application space, further enhancing its commercial implementation capabilities. Overall, this is a key measure for Ubtech to integrate upstream and downstream resources, which will greatly enhance the company's control over the industrial chain and help it gain a stronger position in the robot industry competition.

02 The Rare Case of an H - Share Company Acquiring an A - Share Company, Ubtech Returns to the A - Share Market

The rare case of an H - share company acquiring an A - share company in the capital market is intended to help Ubtech open up the A - share financing channel and diversify its capital layout.

The humanoid robot industry is at a critical stage of transitioning from showy technology demonstrations to large - scale orders and product implementation. It can be said that the intense technological competition has just begun. Burning money to compete in technology and implementation will be the main theme in the robot field in the next few years.

From the perspective of the primary market, robot enterprises have been striving to accumulate resources this year. According to data from Touzhongwang, among the 286 robot enterprises this year, 168 received investment within the year, a year - on - year increase of 87% in the number of invested enterprises. The total financing scale reached 32.9 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 291%. Meanwhile, Yushu Technology and Zhiyuan Robot have set their sights on the A - share market.

Although Ubtech was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 29, 2023, becoming the "first stock of humanoid robots," humanoid robots essentially belong to the hard - tech track with heavy assets, long R & D cycles, and slow commercialization. Compared with the Hong Kong stock market, which places more emphasis on cash flow and profitability, the institutional design of the A - share market is more suitable for robot enterprises. It allows for long - term losses and heavy R & D investment and emphasizes technological advancement and domestic substitution. For humanoid robot enterprises in the transition period from engineering to large - scale implementation, the A - share market is undoubtedly the capital market with the highest tolerance for errors.

In the view of "Node AI Insights," especially the controlling acquisition of an A - share company by a cross - border listed company is itself a topic of interest and has strategic significance, which is conducive to increasing the capital market's attention to Ubtech and expanding its brand influence.

In the context of increasing competition in the intelligent robot industry, achieving large - scale layout through mergers and acquisitions is conducive to creating higher entry barriers, thereby raising the market's expectations for the company's future growth space.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Node AI Insights". Author: Daoge. Republished by 36Kr with permission.