Bafang Booms While Continental Closes
Continental Bicycle Systems recently announced that it is pulling out of the e-bike market. Continental has been making motors and drive system electronics. The company first announced this decision to its staff of about 100 employees. Production is to be phased-out in the first quarter of 2020.
Antje Lewe, Spokeswoman ContiTech and Head of External Communications stated, “We have decided to discontinue all our e-bike and pedelec business for economic reasons by the end of 2019 and prefer to invest in other growth fields at present.”
Meanwhile one of the largest ebike drive system manufacturers, Bafang Electric (Suzhou) Co. Ltd. Has successfully debuted on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE). 30 million Bafang (BFGF) shares were issued on the capital market, accounting for 25 percent of the company’s total share capital after release. The opening price was 43.44 yuan (A$9.07).
During its first day of trading, Bafang’s share price went up 43.99 percent to hit 62.55 yuan (A$13.07)
The net funds raised after deducting issuing expenses was 1.238 billion yuan (A$258 million).
What will they be doing with a quarter billion dollars of cash?
According to Bafang’s Chairman and Managing Director Qinghua Wang, “Investments will be made including the production and construction of electric motors and control systems for e-bikes and the projected production of li-ion batteries. We will also invest in international marketing projects, R&D and replenish our working capital.
“After the completion of this equity investment project, our production capacity of mid and hub motor systems for all kinds of e-bikes will be increased significantly. Our global marketing network will be further developed, to improve the company’s market share and brand influence. At the same time, our technical center will carry out targeted R&D and constantly improve the technical level of e-bike related electric system products.”
Bafang employs about 500 people worldwide in five locations. The head office, development and manufacturing center are based in Suzhou, near Shanghai. Bafang has Sales and Service Centers in the Netherlands, in the USA and in Germany. The newly opened factory in Poland will focus on production of mid motor systems for the European markets.
This is from a longer article first published in Bike Europe.