“Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily”, October 16 (Reporter Li Mingming) The “best venture capital” Hefei Industrial Investment will also have an important role in the semiconductor field.

After the suspension of trading for 5 trading days, Wenyi Technology went up and down on the first day (October 16). The latest stock price was 26.35 yuan/share, with a total market value of 4.175 billion yuan.

On the evening of October 15, Wenyi Technology announced that the controlling shareholder Tongling Sanjia Electronics (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Sanjia Group”) and its co-actor, Anhui Ruizhen Commercial Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Ruizhen Commercial”), will transfer a total of 26.993865 million shares of the company (17.04% of the total share capital) to Hefei Innovation Technology Venture Capital Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Hefei Innovation Investment”). The transfer price is 24.45 yuan/share, and the total price is about 0.66 billion yuan.

After the transfer, Hefei Innovation Investment will directly hold 17.04% of Wenyi Technology's shares, and will be the controlling shareholder of Wenyi Technology. Hefei Innovation Investment will be the controlling shareholder of Wenyi Technology. The latter will indirectly control Wenyi Technology. Hefei Investment will obtain indirect control of Wenyi Technology, and the Hefei Municipal State-owned Assets Administration Commission, which controls 100% of Wenyi Technology behind it, will become the actual controller of the company.

The news made the market once again focus on Hefei Industrial Investment, an institution known as the “best venture capital” in recent years. So, why is Hefei Industrial Investment planning to join Wenyi Technology this time, and how will it help the latter?

Bu Rixin, founder of Chuangdao Hardware Technology, told the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter that Wenyi Technology of Hefei Industrial Investment Holdings is to supplement a key link in its semiconductor industry investment chain. As a state-owned holding company, Hefei Industrial Investment acquires listed companies, not simply from a financial investment perspective; it is more about starting from the perspective of regional industrial development and support to support key chain enterprises in a segment, using this as a starting point to cultivate related industrial chains.

The “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter noticed that since its listing in 2002, Wenyi Technology has changed the actual controller 6 times. Coupled with this share transfer, the company may change hands for the 7th time.

Hefei Industrial Investment plans to join Wenyi Technology for 0.66 billion

Established in 2000 and listed in 2002, Wenyi Technology is once known as the “China Mold First Stock”. It is an enterprise engaged in the manufacture of semiconductor equipment and devices, chemical building material molds and belt conveyors. Its main products include plastic profile molds, electronic plastic molding molds, stamping parts, plastic packaging presses, T/F systems, and LED brackets.

In recent years, the company's operating performance has been relatively stable. According to public information, from 2022 to the first half of 2024, Wenyi Technology achieved operating income of 0.444 billion yuan, 0.331 billion yuan, and 0.156 billion yuan respectively. During the same period, net profit to mother was 0.026 billion yuan, -0.081 billion yuan, and 0.008 billion yuan, respectively.

Bu Rixin said that the semiconductor plastic packaging equipment field where Wenyi Technology is located is not a traditional industry. This segment is one of the key components of semiconductors, and high-end core equipment is also monopolized by foreign manufacturers, such as TOWA, YAMADA, etc. At the same time, the level of automation in this area is very low. It is a labor-intensive industry, and there is an urgent need to improve production efficiency by improving the level of intelligence and automation of equipment. Therefore, Hefei Industrial Investment now plans to hold Wenyi Technology, which also complements a key link in the semiconductor industry chain.

At the same time, some semiconductor investors also told the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter that Wenyi Technology's plastic packaging equipment field has a lot of room for development, but the company's development has been weak in recent years. Domestic companies focusing on this field also include Nike Equipment and Qixin Semiconductor.

An investor in the hard technology sector told the “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily” reporter that Hefei Industrial Investment is making a pragmatic move. “Wenyi Technology's revenue and net profit scale is small, the market capitalization is not large, the balance ratio is very low, and the holding acquisition cost is also low. The semiconductor industry is also a strategic emerging industry. Hefei Industrial Investment may transform and upgrade the company.”

From Tongling state-owned assets to Hefei state-owned assets, Wenyi Technology has gone through 6 control changes before. Initially, the company's controlling shareholder was Sanjia Group, and Sanjia Group was 100% owned by the Tongling State-owned Assets Operation Company. In 2003, the Tongling Municipal Government decided to reform Sanjia Group and introduce strategic investors. Since then, Wenyi Technology's actual controllers have been the Tongling State-owned Assets Operation Center, Tongling Industrial State-owned Assets Management Co., Ltd., Chen Denghua, and the current Luo Qifang and Zhou Wenyu.

Hefei builds semiconductor industry chain

According to public information, Hefei Innovation Investment was founded in August 2000. The legal representative is Zheng Yongxiao. Its business scope is “venture capital, fiduciary management of high-tech venture capital funds, mergers and acquisitions and restructuring, and enterprise management consulting services.”

The sole controlling shareholder of Hefei Innovation Investment is Hefei State-owned Assets Holding Co., Ltd., the indirect controller is Hefei Industrial Investment, and the actual controller is the Hefei Municipal State-owned Assets Administration Commission.

There are 41 Hefei Innovation Investment Management Funds and 431 public investment cases. Investments in the semiconductor sector include a series of companies such as Anhui Zhongke Chuangxin, Weijin Technology, and Chengling Microelectronics. Furthermore, its layout covers many fields with high growth potential, such as robots, new batteries, and integrated circuits, as well as future cutting-edge technologies such as controlled nuclear fusion and quantum information.

Meanwhile, Hefei Industrial Investment is an important state-owned investment platform in Hefei, the “most popular venture capital city.” In March 2015, Hefei State-owned Assets Holdings Co., Ltd. and Hefei Industrial Investment Holdings Co., Ltd. merged to form Hefei Industrial Investment and became one of the three major platform companies under the Hefei State-owned Assets Administration Commission.

Hefei Industrial Investment is positioned as an enabling investment and financing platform for innovation promotion and strategic emerging industries. It manages the management agencies of four provincial parent funds, including the Anhui New Materials Industry Themed Parent Fund, the Anhui Aerospace Information Industry Parent Fund, and the Anhui Seed Fund Phase II Parent Fund. It participates in the operation and management of two municipal parent funds, the Hefei Municipal Government Guided Parent Fund and the Municipal Venture Capital Guidance Fund, and operates “industrial investment” fund groups such as municipal seed funds, city angel investment funds, and market-based funds.

Currently, Hefei Industrial Investment has set up 61 self-managed funds, with a total scale of over 100 billion yuan, with a total investment of nearly 1,000 enterprises. Of these, 51 projects have achieved IPOs or backdoor listings, and 25 companies have entered the Science and Technology Innovation Board. The registered capital of the Group is 17.577 billion yuan. By the end of 2023, the total assets of the Group reached 90.2 billion yuan.

Hefei Industrial Investment has launched 131 public investment projects. Semiconductors are an important field. It has launched projects such as Changxin Xinqiao, Haitu Microelectronics, CRRC Era Semiconductors, and Xinneng Semiconductors.

Among them, in September of this year, Hefei Industrial Investment made a huge investment in Changxin Xinqiao, which completed a sole investment of 8.22 billion yuan. Changxin Xinqiao is one of the leading enterprises in the domestic storage industry.

Furthermore, in May 2016, Hefei Industrial Investment invested in the introduction of the Changxin 12-inch memory wafer manufacturing base project. Relying on Changxin's leading driving role, the group has laid out hundreds of upstream and downstream industrial projects such as Heguang Mask, Peyton Technology, and Xinfeng Packaging and Testing to land in Hefei, forming a complete integrated circuit industry chain layout from materials, design, manufacturing to packaging testing.

What is behind the layout of Hefei Industrial Investment in semiconductors shows that in recent years, Hefei has laid out strategic emerging industries through “investment led” and the investment promotion model of the industry using investment methods. Today, the Hefei integrated circuit industry cluster has been formed, attracting a number of industry leaders such as Jinghe Integration, Tongfu Microelectronics, Huicheng Co., Ltd., Hengshuo Co., Ltd., and Qizhong Technology to gather here.

Currently, Hefei is making steady progress towards the goal of becoming the “IC capital of China”. In 2023, the city's integrated circuit industry generated 44.88 billion yuan in revenue, attracting 458 enterprises and 0.032 million employees.