Thank you for joining Noble Capital Markets Emerging Growth Virtual Equity Conference. I am Mark Reichman, one of Noble's Senior Research Analysts. Today, we are joined by Thierry Li, Chief Financial Officer, Director, and Company Secretary of CBAK Energy Technology Limited, and Ms. Clara Bladey, CBAK's North American Business Development and Investor Relations Representative. CBAK Energy trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol CBAT. Clara, the floor is yours.
Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for bearing with me and joining me today. My name is Clara Bladey, and I am proud to represent CBAK Energy. We are a commercially proven, Nasdaq-listed battery company with 25 years of innovation in lithium and sodium-ion battery technologies. Today, I will show you why CBAK is not only deeply undervalued but positioned for significant growth in the fastest-growing segment of the global battery market. This presentation includes forward-looking statements subject to risks and uncertainties. Let me begin by introducing you to CBAK. For the last 25 years, we have been establishing ourselves as a leading manufacturer of cylindrical cell technology. Our cells serve global industry leaders in energy storage, portable power, and light electric vehicle markets.
We generated roughly $195 million in revenue in 2025, and first quarter 2026 revenue reached $69.6 million, nearly double the year prior. Our top five customers have worked with CBAK for an average of approximately five years, and orders from those customers have increased 11.4% in 2025. CBAK has 38 GWh of annual designed capacity across all of our existing facilities. We are currently producing 8.3 GWh a year, leaving us substantial embedded capacity for future growth. CBAK is expanding into cells for AI data center backup power solutions. Our newly developed full-tab 26650 LFP cell builds on two decades of research and development and is now well-suited for one of the fastest-growing markets, battery backup power for AI data centers.
We are already advancing module-level testing with multiple tier one customers and are in the process of securing the UL and CE certifications needed for the U.S. and European markets. This is CBAK at a glance. A highly experienced manufacturer with a proven cell business and products already in the market with substantial room to grow. As of September 28th of this year, CBAK was trading at a 0.44x PS on trailing 12-month revenue, with a market capitalization of approximately $100 million. Our stock has experienced substantial increase recently as market recognition of CBAK's progress has increased. However, even after recent re-rating, CBAK continues to trade at a significant discount relative to its revenue scale, manufacturing capacity, and growth potential.
We are a company that has generated nearly $200 million in revenue last year with a current capacity of 8.3 GWh today, but potential for 38 GWh , yet the market is valuing us at well under 1x sales. You can just compare that to our peers. CBAK is an established scaling battery leader with superior cylindrical technology and elite global partnerships, trading at a deeply discounted 0.44x PS, while some of our revenue-generating peers trade at 0.68x - 1.3 x. Even though the market has begun to recognize our progress, we believe the current valuation still does not fully reflect our revenue base, operating scale, and long-term growth opportunity. CBAK operates over 500,000 sq m of facilities and delivers 8.3 GWh of annual capacity today.
We are the first China-based lithium battery company to list on Nasdaq with two decades of sustained capital market compliance. Our journey reflects consistent leadership and execution. From pioneering LFP mass production in 2005 to our Nasdaq listing just a year later in 2006 to becoming a top five player in key Chinese cell segments, we have repeatedly turned our innovation into commercial success, and we will continue to do so. Today, we are expanding our sodium-ion battery technology and physically expanding into Southeast Asia while strengthening our operational capacity. Our leadership team has a global mindset. Our CEO, Jason Hu, has over 20 years with the company and deep sales and marketing expertise.
Our CFO, Thierry Li, who is with us today and will be participating in the question and answer section, brings strong global capital markets and fund management experience while our Director, Yuna Pei, oversees procurement with her experience in world economics. This team has the vision and execution track record to deliver. Headquartered in China, CBAK serves customers in more than 40 countries across every major region. This global presence de-risks our business and opens multiple growth vectors simultaneously. In Europe, we partner with Viessmann. In North America, we deliver reliable solutions to major internet and energy customers, including Schneider Electric. In India and Africa, we work with prominent two and three wheeler makers and battery swapping companies, Ather, Bajaj, Hero, and Spiro.
We have built longstanding relationships with these global customers, which span several of our core markets, including home energy storage, portable power, and electric two and three wheelers. India specifically is a core growing market of ours. In August of this year, we secured an approximately $96 million battery cell order from a major Indian two and three wheeler manufacturer. This customer places purchase orders on a quarterly basis, so Q2 through Q4 orders are not yet reflected in our backlog. Those are expected to be added as purchase orders are issued. Our current backlog gives us good visibility into near-term demand.
Looking at our product matrix, we offer a strong differentiated lineup of large cylindrical cells, including our Model 26 series, the first mass-produced LFP cylindrical batteries, and the Model 32 series, a core part of our portfolio and key for customers such as Anker and Spiro. Our sodium-ion 32 series cell is our alternative technology offering, which allows us the option of supporting customers with a high performance cell capable at operating at ultra-low temperatures. We are now expanding our technology offering further through that Model 26 series I mentioned earlier, the high performance LFP batteries designed specifically for AI data center backup power. We are already in the process of running joint testing with leading well-known AI data center companies for these cells. We have locked in long-term material supply and are advancing our global certifications to support broader deployment.
With the Model 26 series, CBAk is positioning itself as a key supplier for the high performance backup power that AI data centers will increasingly require. CBAK has invested heavily in developing this full-tab technology used in our Model 26 cells. Our commitment to R and D supports our continued product growth and has translated into our commercial success. As of September 2026, cumulative Model 32 series shipments, our core model, has exceeded 104 million cells. We currently operate 8.3 GWh of battery capacity across our Dalian, Nanjing, and Changzhou facilities. Nanjing has been CBAK's main source of capacity growth this year. Shipments of our 32140 cell reached approximately 32.55 million cells in the first seven months of this year, up 101.5% year-over-year, and already above the full year 2025 volume. The phase two ramp-up of our Nanjing facility was completed in August.
Unit production costs declined following the ramp-up. We are now targeting an additional 6 GWh at our existing Nanjing facility by year-end 2026, increasing its annual capacity from 4.5 GWh to 10.5 GWh . Even beyond that, we recently signed an investment agreement for a separate 12 GWh project in Nanjing, designed to support both sodium-ion and lithium-ion production as future customer demand develops. CBAK is more than a cylindrical cell manufacturer. We also own Hitrans, a China-based battery materials company that produces cell ingredients used across the lithium battery industry. With multiple manufacturing bases across China, Hitrans has been ranked among China's top brands in the cathode materials category for eight years running. We are methodically scaling capacity across our Chinese facilities while adding strategic production in Southeast Asia.
While our plans for this expansion are still in progress, we are targeting the plant to open in 2028, which will help mitigate geopolitical risk, secure our supply chains, and will position us to serve our global customers more competitively. Looking at revenue by application, in fiscal year 2025, residential energy supply and UPS accounted for about 65% of battery revenue, while light EV and EV contributed to about 35%, giving us exposure across both energy storage and electric mobility. Hitrans is also growing rapidly with a positive outlook for profitability due to favorable raw material pricing and new customer acquisition. Hitrans is a growing strategic arm of CBAK and a key aspect of our future business. At the group level, we have posted solid gross profit of $18.42 million and positive adjusted EBITDA of $7.05 million for fiscal year 2025.
In Q1 of this year, group net revenue reached $69.62 million, a 99.3% increase compared to Q1 last year with net income for Hitrans reaching $1.57 million. At CBAK Energy our sustainable dev elopment strategy drives strong ESG performance. Our robust environmental management system is proudly certified by EcoVadis, and this and other initiatives reflect our commitment to powering sustainable living through responsible, transparent operations. Before I close, I want to make sure everyone knows that I believe CBAK stands apart in the market with a powerful combination of strengths that few of our peers can really match. We have a world-class customer base of tier one companies, substantial revenue scale paired with highly scalable operations, and more than 20 years of proprietary experience in cylindrical battery technology, expertise that has been continuously validated by our major customers and proven by our ongoing commercial success.
Today, these advantages place CBAK Energy at a highly compelling valuation and provide a rare opportunity to invest in a scaled, technically proven player operating one of the fastest-growing sectors today. We invite you to join CBAK Energy on the next phase of our growth journey. Thank you so much. As I mentioned, we have our CFO, Thierry Li, here with us today, so we will open for questions now. Thank you.
Thank you, Clara. We have an audience member that is asking about the order backlog that you mentioned in your presentation. What is the level of the order backlog, and what are the principal drivers you expect to sustain growth beyond the existing order book?
Thank you for asking the question. I am Thierry Li, CFO of the company, and let me respond to this question. In recent years, we have been seeing growing orders coming from Southeast Asia, especially from Vietnam and India. As for the order backlog we mentioned, most of them were actually from top operators for two-wheelers and three-wheelers in India. Actually, we have been working with almost all of the top 10 LEV operators in India, and some of them have been already working with us for a few years. So we have been very confident that this order backlog will continue because they have been very stabilized in placing orders month by month. Once they have already adopted our cells in their certain models of their bikes, electric bikes or electric motorcycles, they will continue using.
We believe that this is continuable and this is sustainable, the order backlog will be sustainable.
One of the opportunities highlighted in your presentation is AI data center backup power. What technical or commercial milestones remain before qualification activity can translate into meaningful orders and revenue?
Yes. We have been seeing this growing AI industry as a very strong and very important opportunity for our business. Some of the very famous AI data center operators in the U.S. have been testing our cells at this moment, and they care about the stability, safety, and heat dispersion of our cells, which is our full-tab technology can play a very important role in. With our latest cells of the 26650, its heat dispersion with the full-tab technology will be improved substantially. As of the day-to-day, all of the AI data center operators who are testing our cells have expressed very positive about the testing outcome. The only thing that we still need to address is still the U.S. tariff on the Chinese manufacturer cells, which has something to do with our expansion in Southeast Asia.
The company owns the Hitrans battery materials business. What strategic advantages does Hitrans provide to the broader CBAK platform, and how should investors think about its contribution to revenue and earnings over the next several years?
Yeah. We actually acquired Hitrans in 2021, and at the time, the company was not only doing LFP cells, but also doing NMC cells. Hitrans, as you may know, was doing the, sorry, the cathode materials and precursors to cathode materials for NMC materials. At the time, we acquired them in order to integrate some of our upstream to our core business. But later on, we found that LFP was growing much faster than NMC, so we basically stopped the NMC business. After that, Hitrans became a pure financial investment. In the past few years, Hitrans performance was not very well because at the time, the price for raw material was really low and they were badly hit, along with some other leading cathode material producers in China.
But luckily, last year, starting from the second half of last year, the price of the raw materials started rebounding, and this year we can see Hitrans will just grow strongly with a very positive net income this year.
Thierry, as we think about your annual cell production compared with design capacity across your existing facilities, how should investors think about utilization today, the pace at which additional capacity will be brought online, and then, of course, the level of demand required before you commit additional capital?
Yeah. Last year, I just talked about the big picture in our Nanjing facility, because Nanjing will be the focus of our whole company in the future, is much larger. Now our Nanjing facility was about 1.5 GWh last year, and we started investing in an addition of 3 GWh from November last year. This newly added capacity has been completely ramped up in June, I think in two months ago, several months ago. As a result of that, our revenues has already surpassed the full year of last year. In the first half of this year, the revenue has already surpassed the revenue for the entire last year. We believe that this year, for our Nanjing project alone, we will be able to double the revenues. We can see that there will be continuous orders coming in.
In the last year, I think starting from August of last year, we have a lot of the customers who wanted to buy our cells badly, but we do not have enough capacity to supply the cells to them. That is the reason why we decided to expand the capacity. Like Clara just said, we decided to invest another 6 GWh in our Nanjing facility because we feel that with the Indian orders coming in, we may still face the shortage of the current 32140 capacity. We decided to add another 6 GWh , which can help us increase the capacity for the 32140 and another larger format of the cylindrical cells, the 60150, which is right now very hot in the Chinese market.
CBAK competes against larger battery manufacturers. What do you believe the company has the strongest sustainable competitive advantage in? Is it full-tab cylindrical technology, manufacturing economics, customer specialization, product performance, or really the ability to serve markets that larger producers may not prioritize?
Yeah. I know everyone talks about the big names in the battery industries, but some of them were not actually, I would say, not focused on the cylindrical battery area. Some of them were producing prismatic cells, which we currently do not produce. Typically, I think our competitive advantage actually comes down to our more than 20 years experience in the cylindrical cells. Actually, if you look at the rankings in last years, our 32140 cells already ranked top three in the Chinese market. Actually, it is the global market. We were actually competing with two very big companies in China, which, I mean, their capacity may be double or even, I would say probably double ours. But we will still be able to compete with them because our price is higher than them.
Our customers recognize that because the stability and the consistency of the performance of our batteries is actually better than our competitors. I would just attribute that to our 20 years experience in the cylindrical cells area and also the newly advanced full-tab technology.
I have a question from an audience member asking about the total number of employees at the company and what percentage or the number of employees are U.S.-based.
I have to look at the actual number, but I would say it's roughly around 2,000, including all the workers at the production line. We don't have an exact number of the U.S.-based. I think it's probably less than 10 people working in the U.S. because we are a manufacturing company and most of the people has to be in China to manage
Right
the manufacturing process.
Right. No, that makes sense, and most of them probably would be the marketing folks or whatever. Light electric vehicles have become an important growth opportunity, particularly in India with the two and three-wheeler markets. How large could this business become relative to energy storage? What's your advantage in winning customers in India?
Well, at least for now, we don't see a big market opportunities for energy storage in India, because electrification advocated by the Indian government right now is focusing on the two-wheeler and three-wheeler market.
Right.
We do see that market growing really fast. Our business for energy storage actually is focusing on the portable power supply units, which has the biggest market shares in the U.S. and Japan and probably Europe. We still have some potential customers for home energy storage who are based in Europe and in the U.S. But because of the U.S. tariffs, our business with U.S. customers for energy storage has been very slow. We hope that could be resolved in the future with our expansion in Southeast Asian countries.
Okay. I think your presentation, correct me if I'm wrong, I think the plans call for 3 GWh of manufacturing capacity in Southeast Asia with site selection targeted for 2027 and mass production in 2028. What factors will determine where you locate that facility, and how important is an overseas manufacturing footprint to addressing tariffs, trade barriers, and customer requirements?
Well, we have been searching for locations with the help of some very big consultant firms, and we have already determined several options for us. We even have some anchor customers for that project. But the current stage of the project has been very slow because we can't find any suitable source of funds for this project. There is this very strict currency control policy in China, which just stop us from easily transferring our operating cash out of China. We have to source capitals outside China. Right now, the U.S. capital market is very underestimating our stock at this moment, so we are not going to do any public offerings to raise capitals in the open market. I think that would be a very tough question for the management to study.
Okay. I've just got a quick question from an audience member. Do you have UL or CE testing certification?
Sorry, can you repeat that question?
Do you have UL or CE testing certification?
Yes
related to the data centers. Okay.
Yes.
Well, I think we're nearing the end of our time, so I think we'll get in one more question, and that is: Over the next 12-24 months, which two or three operating or financial milestones should investors focus on most closely, and why is now a good time for investors to consider CBAK Energy?
Yeah. I would just link it to our expansion at this moment. Like I say, our newly added 3 GWh would help us double our revenues this year. In next year, if we successfully expanded another 6 GWh , that would actually bring us a very substantial increase of our revenues, and we hope that would help us in just reach CNY 5 billion in sale s very soon. With our continuous expansion, there will be a very significant increase in the CapEx. I don't believe that there will be a very positive outcome in the profits in the coming two years. Once we have done with this expansion, with the substantially increased revenues, we will just see explosive growth in the profits in the future.
Well, Thierry and Clara, thank you for joining us today.
Thank you, Mark. Thank you, everyone.
Thank you. Thank you, everyone.
As a reminder, a replay will be available on channelchek.com. On behalf of Noble Capital Markets, thank you to everyone who joined us, and we hope you enjoy the remainder of the Emerging Growth Virtual Equity Conference.