IPO Preview | WBDigital Energy: Why did it take six years for the company to finally go public after two failed attempts to list on the A-share market?

In 2025, a historic turning point in the Chinese automobile market has been settled - the retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles has surpassed 50% for the first time, steadily staying above this watershed for several months. The trend of "retreating from oil and entering electricity" has become established, and the industry's focus of competition is shifting from the fierce "price war" to "value supremacy". In this silent and profound energy revolution, a critically important supporting track is experiencing explosive growth: charging infrastructure. At a crucial moment when the industry landscape is being reshaped, the world's largest smart charging equipment supplier has officially launched its push towards the capital market. Recently, Wanbang Digital Energy Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Wanbang Digital Energy") submitted an application for listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with JPMorgan, GUOTAI JUNAN, and Guosen Securities serving as joint sponsors. Prior to this listing in Hong Kong, Wanbang Digital Energy had made several attempts to conduct an initial public offering on the A-share market, but failed to do so. According to the prospectus, the company first initiated an A-share listing plan in September 2020, which was terminated in June 2023 due to strategic and market environment factors. In October 2024, the company resumed preparations for an A-share listing, but once again terminated it in November 2025. Since the first initiation of the listing plan in 2020, Wanbang Digital Energy's listing journey has spanned nearly six years. What are the chances of success for Wanbang Digital Energy in this Hong Kong listing? Shrinking proportion of charging equipment, rise of microgrid and energy storage business According to the prospectus, Wanbang Digital Energy Co., Ltd. is a global leading smart charging equipment supplier and an early practitioner of microgrid systems. The company's business covers smart charging equipment, microgrid systems, and large-scale energy storage systems, aiming to build a complete system of intelligent energy solutions. In terms of market competitiveness, the company has become the first smart charging equipment supplier in China to obtain certification from high-end international OEMs due to its outstanding product performance and system compatibility. According to market research data from Frost & Sullivan, Wanbang Digital Energy ranked first globally in revenue and sales of smart charging equipment in 2024, with sales exceeding 470,000 units that year, demonstrating its scale production capacity and market penetration in the field of charging equipment. In the microgrid and energy storage business, the company has delivered over 300 microgrid systems in China and overseas, covering various application scenarios such as charging stations, industrial parks, mining areas, residential communities, remote areas, and islands, with rich experience in project implementation and adaptability to different scenarios. This has provided systematic support for the application of renewable energy in transportation, industry, and commerce. Combining its leading position in the charging equipment field with the expansion of its microgrid business, Wanbang Digital Energy has gradually formed an energy business structure of "equipment + system + services", demonstrating its comprehensive service capabilities in the construction of new energy infrastructure and smart energy management. In this context, the company's revenue has been steadily increasing. In the first nine months of 2023, 2024, and 2025, the company achieved revenues of approximately RMB 3.474 billion, 4.182 billion, and 3.072 billion, respectively. The revenue structure has continued to optimize. In the core business of smart charging equipment and services, although it remains the pillar of performance, its proportion is declining. In 2023, it accounted for 92.4%, dropping to 77.9% in 2024, and further decreasing to 71.1% in the first nine months of 2025. Among them, DC charging equipment contributed the most, with revenue of RMB 1.381 billion in the first nine months of 2025, accounting for 44.9% of the total revenue. The microgrid system business has shown significant growth, with revenue of RMB 516 million in 2024, accounting for 12.3% of revenue; in the first nine months of 2025, revenue increased to RMB 608 million, with a proportion of 19.8%, becoming the company's second largest source of revenue. In addition, the large-scale energy storage system business, which started contributing revenue in 2024, generated revenue of RMB 281 million in the first nine months of 2025, accounting for 9.1%. It is worth noting that the decrease in the proportion of charging equipment revenue and the continuous increase in the proportion of microgrid and energy storage systems reflect the company's transformation from a charging equipment supplier to a comprehensive energy solution provider. This structural adjustment indicates that its business synergies are gradually emerging, providing a broader growth space for the company in the field of new energy infrastructure. Deeply cultivating the Chinese market and expanding globally In addition to deepening its presence in the Chinese market, Wanbang Digital Energy continues to promote its global expansion. Currently, its smart charging equipment and microgrid systems cover approximately 70 countries and regions worldwide. In the first nine months of 2025, the company's overseas revenue reached RMB 572.9 million, accounting for 18.6% of total revenue during the same period, indicating that international business has become an important support for its growth. The company particularly regards Europe as a key support point for its global strategy. Through a joint venture with Schneider Electric, Schneider eStar, it focuses on promoting charging equipment and related services in the European market. The European market imposes high requirements on product quality, compliance, and service systems. Successfully entering this market will not only help establish the company's brand and technological benchmarks but also lay an important foundation for future expansion into other emerging markets. In addition, Wanbang Digital Energy is continuously improving its global network and plans to establish marketing and service centers in five key regions: Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South America, and North America, to further enhance localized service capabilities and support systematic expansion of its business worldwide. However, it is important to note that while operating revenue continues to grow, the company's profitability is facing structural pressures. During the reporting period, the company's overall gross profit margin decreased from 33.4% in 2023 to 24.6% in the first nine months of 2025, a cumulative decrease of approximately 8.8 percentage points. According to the company's explanation, the decline in gross profit margin is mainly influenced by three factors: intensified industry competition leading to pressure on product pricing, increases in some raw material costs, and the rising proportion of the relatively low gross margin microgrid and energy storage system business, which has a structural impact on the overall gross profit level. In this context, the company's net profit during the reporting period also showed a year-on-year decline, reaching RMB 493 million in 2023, RMB 336 million in 2024, and RMB 301 million in the first nine months of 2025, reflecting the dual challenges of industry environment and business transformation faced by the company in the process of expanding its business scale. Industry undergoing substantial expansion with policy support Driven by continuous policies, the Chinese charging infrastructure industry is in a period of rapid expansion. In September 2025, the "Three-Year Doubling Plan for Electric Vehicle Charging Facility Service Capacity (2025-2027)" explicitly stated that by the end of 2027, the national number of charging facilities would reach 28 million, doubling its service capacity, and systematically deploying tasks such as improving the charging network, upgrading efficiency, and optimizing services. In December of the same year, the National Energy Administration held a special forum to further promote the implementation of the plan. With dual impetus from policy and capital, the industry has rapidly expanded in scale - by the end of November 2025, the total number of charging facilities nationwide had reached 19.322 million, a year-on-year increase of 52%. However, as the industry continues to expand, some issues are gradually emerging: some companies focus more on infrastructure construction than operation, and there is insufficient investment in talent development, standard delivery, and market education, leading to a disconnect between technological iterations and social awareness, which hinders the overall service quality and sustainable development capabilities of the industry. From a global market perspective, the charging equipment industry still has considerable growth potential. The market size has grown from RMB 21.41 billion in 2020 to RMB 59.70 billion in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 29.2%. Structurally, AC charging equipment has grown rapidly in the early stage, but it is expected that DC charging equipment will become the main driver of growth from 2024 to 2030, with the market size expected to exceed RMB 196.23 billion, and a compound annual growth rate of about 21.9%. In terms of regions, although the Chinese market has shown significant growth, with the acceleration of global electric vehicle popularization and increased policy support, overseas markets are expected to gradually surpass the domestic market in growth rate, becoming an important growth engine for the industry in the next stage. Overall, with the increase in intelligent device sales, continuous technological evolution, and global energy transformation, the charging equipment market is expected to maintain a stable development trend. In conclusion, Wanbang Digital Energy's listing in Hong Kong comes at a critical stage of the accelerated transformation of the global energy structure and the evolution of the charging infrastructure market from scale expansion to deep value cultivation. With its global leadership position in smart charging equipment and its business synergy in microgrid and energy storage systems, the company has begun to build a framework of comprehensive energy services of "hardware + system + operation". However, the challenges it faces are also clear: balancing scale growth with profit quality under the dual pressure of intensified industry competition and business structural transformation, and transforming market opportunities driven by policies into sustainable competitiveness will be key to determining its long-term value. Looking ahead, with the advancement of the domestic "Three-Year Doubling" action plan and the rapid release of overseas charging demand, the charging infrastructure industry still has definite growth space. For Wanbang Digital Energy, going public is not only an expansion of financing channels but also a public test of its strategic execution capabilities, technological integration efficiency, and global operational level. Whether it can take an advanced path from a "equipment supplier" to a "leader in energy solutions" on the dual stage of the capital market and industrial transformation will require time and performance validation.