Chinese memory chipmaker YMTC valued at US$22 billion after beverage company investment
The deal was signed in December 2023 but was only announced on Friday as it ‘involved commercial secrets’, Yangyuan said
Previously undisclosed financial information, including a valuation of 161 billion yuan (US$22.1 billion) and losses incurred last year, have been revealed in a filing by a new investor in Yangtze Memory Technologies Co (YMTC), China’s leading flash memory chipmaker.
Hebei Yangyuan Zhihui Beverage Co has paid 1.6 billion yuan (US$219 million) to subscribe to YMTC’s new registered capital, giving it a holding of 0.99 per cent, the beverage giant said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Friday.
The investment, through Yangyuan’s subsidiary Wuhu Wenming Quanhong Investment Management, gave YMTC a valuation of 161 billion yuan. The deal was signed in December 2023 but was only announced on Friday as it “involved commercial secrets”, Yangyuan said.
The filing also disclosed some key financial figures for YMTC, including a loss of 84 million yuan in the first nine months of 2024, compared to a profit of 531 million yuan for the full year of 2023. Net assets amounted to 134.7 billion yuan at the end of last September, higher than 132.6 billion yuan at the end of 2023.
After the investment, Yangyuan has become the eighth biggest shareholder in YMTC, with the other seven being state-owned organisations, including Hubei Changsheng Development backed by the Hubei provincial government where YMTC is based, and Wuhan Xinfei Technology Investment, back by the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, known as the Big Fund. The two institutions hold 26.9 per cent and 25.7 per cent of YMTC, respectively.