Ingdan Announces 2023 Interim Results

• The rapid development of AI has accelerated demand for chips. The Group’s AI orders also showed an upward trend, with a total revenue of RMB3,863.5 million during the Period.
• In the first half of 2023, gross profit recorded approximately RMB482.4 million, net profit was approximately RMB168.1 million, and profit attributable to equity shareholders of the Company was approximately RMB92.5 million.
• During the Period, Shenzhen Comtech submitted relevant information to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, which will help further enhance its brand influence and popularity in the industry, as it continues to cultivate the chip market, and provides in-depth services to customers in the industry chain upstream and downstream.
• Ingdan focuses on the new energy smart battery cloud business with emphasis on two-wheeler battery cloud services, in order to seize the RMB 100 billion ”blue ocean” market opportunity, which would enable the Group to sustain profitability.

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach – 31 August 2023 – Ingdan, Inc. (“Ingdan, Inc.” or the “Company”, stock code: 400.HK; with its subsidiaries (the ”Group”)), formerly known as “Cogobuy Group”, a technology service company focusing on serving global chip industry and artificial intelligence (“AI”) and Internet of Things (“IoT”, together “AIoT”) ecosystem, with its core businesses “Comtech” and “Ingdan”, is pleased to announce its unaudited interim results for the six months ended June 30, 2023 (the “first half of 2023” or the “Period”).

Financial Highlights of the First Half of 2023

As of June 30, 2023, the Group recorded a total revenue of approximately RMB3,863.5 million, a YoY decrease of 17.8%; net profit was approximately RMB168.1 million, a YoY decrease of 20.7%; gross profit was approximately RMB482.4 million, a YoY increase of 13.7%. In the first half of 2023, the rapid development of AI technologies has driven the digitalization of various industries, resulting in an increase in demand for chips. Accordingly, the Group’s AI demands have increased. However, as affected by suppliers’ production capacity, there was a supply shortage of AI chips and the delivery of orders has been deferred to the second half of the year. Coupled with the slowdown in the growth of demand for chips in the consumer electronics category, the overall sales dropped. On the other hand, with profits increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 46.1% from 2019 to 2022, the Group’s results for the corresponding period of the prior year grew at a record high. Therefore, as the market demand returns to normal industry level from last year’s chips shortage, the Company’s profit has declined as compared with the same period last year. During the Period, the Group’s profit attributable to equity shareholders of the Company was RMB92.5million. The Group’s cash and bank balances (including short-term bank deposits and pledged deposits) was RMB1,048.7 million. The Group’s bank loans were RMB1,818.8 million, book value of inventories was RMB5,055.2 million, and inventories net of rebates were RMB1,020.8 million. The basic common shares outstanding were 1,394,262,732, and the weighted average number of ordinary shares for the purpose of diluted earnings per share were 1,371,063,000.

Comtech Captured the Demand of AI Chips

In the first half of 2023, the popularity of Generative AI such as ChatGPT has once again driven the AI boom. The thriving AI market trend in China has driven the growth in demand for AI orders from Comtech. However, due to the impact of supply shortage, the inventory of AI chips was insufficient to fulfill the large number of orders, resulted in the delay of deliveries to the second half of the year and the sales volume was affected accordingly. According to forecasts by World Semiconductor Trade Statistics Association, global annual semiconductor sales will decline by 10.3% in 2023 but are expected to grow by 11.8% in 2024 by virtue of a strong recovery.^[1] As a technology service platform for the chip industry, Comtech focuses on the application, design, and distribution of IC chips. It covers over 50% of global major high-end chip suppliers and many leading domestic chip makers upstream, as well as tens of thousands of enterprises in five major fields downstream, including smart vehicles, digital infrastructure, industrial interconnection, energy control and big consumption. With the gradual recovery of the domestic economy, the continuous development of the technology industry, and favorable national policies, the outlook for China’s semiconductor industry is optimistic, as it meets increasing demand for chips and brings more growth momentum to the chip business.

Comtech continued to actively push for the development of chips applications during the Period, and has achieved technological breakthroughs in cutting-edge technological features in the industries of AIGC, logistics robots and electronic rearview mirrors for smart vehicles, empowering a number of China’s innovative enterprises in, so as to prepare to capitalize on future market recovery.

• Comtech has laid out plans in the field of AIGC, vigorously expanded the chips application scenarios and opportunities, and successfully deployed NVIDIA products in a prominent Data Centre in Baoding city, with hosting capacity of 360,000 AI servers, to support the goal of building a demonstration city in the era of artificial intelligence.
• Comtech actively explored the application fields of mobile robot chips, supported the chip application and design resolution of innovative industries, successfully deployed STMicroelectronics products to warehousing robots, and provided technical training to help the logistics industry break through industry barriers.
• The smart vehicle market also saw the opening of new opportunities with the electronic rearview mirror industry. Comtech and AMD-XLINX jointly launched the “Smart Vehicle Vision Development Package” to realize various advantages such as self-adaption, low latency, scalability, and customization—to meet the future expansion needs of smart vehicles for cross-domain integration capabilities.

Shenzhen Comtech Continued its Preparation for an A-Share Listing Application

The application for A-Share listing on the ChiNext Board submitted by Comtech’s operating entity, Shenzhen Comtech Limited (“Shenzhen Comtech”) has been confirmed by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on 30 June 2022. Shenzhen Comtech is preparing for the proposed A-Share listing and has submitted its audited consolidated financial statements for the three years ended December 31, 2020, 2021 and 2022 during the first half of 2023. The proposed A-share listing, if completed, is expected to help further expand the Group’s development in the chip market in Mainland China, and the Company will remain the ultimate controlling shareholder of Shenzhen Comtech and its financial results will still be consolidated into the Company to facilitate the sustainable growth of the Group’s results.

Focusing on New Energy Smart Battery Cloud Business with Emphasis on Two-Wheeled Battery Cloud Services

Ingdan focuses on the new energy industry and is committed to developing the industry for two-wheeler battery replacement and re-utilization. By building a reliable and asset management platform for traceable lithium battery life-cycle data, it provides customized solutions for two-wheeler battery replacement, power re-utilization and energy storage, etc. Ingdan’s proprietary smart battery management platform can monitor real-time battery status, effectively improve battery usage efficiency and cycle, realizing the smart management of the whole battery life cycle, from production calibration, safe operation, asset management, efficiency management, to recycling tracking, etc.

According to the analysis of iResearch Consulting, the number of two-wheeled electric vehicles in China was estimated to be approximately 350 million in 2022. In order to resolve the problems of ”slow recharge, difficult recharge, unsafe recharge, short battery life and high cost”, the business model of ”replace instead of recharge” has been adopted by the industry with an accelerated development pace. According to EVTank’s forecast, the scale of the two-wheel electric vehicle battery replacement service market will exceed RMB 130 billion by 2025.^[2]In line with China’s ”double carbon” national goal of reaching carbon peak in 2030 and realizing carbon neutrality in 2060, the upgrade of the energy industry structure is expected to bring about rapid changes in the industry layout. Ingdan strategically focuses on the two-wheeler battery cloud services, aiming at the new market trend of battery cloud in order to seize the RMB 100 billion ”blue ocean” market opportunity, which would enable the Group to sustain profitability while contributing to the advocacy of the product standardization of China’s two-wheeler battery replacement industry, and support the realization of the national ”double carbon” goal.

Outlook

Mr. Jeffrey Kang, CEO of Ingdan, Inc., said, “China’s AI industry has a strong momentum to empower digital transformation in different industries. As the core of artificial intelligence technology, AI chips enable the rapid development and application of the chip industry, driving the Group’s AI chips sales and creating new development opportunities for our chip business. Additionally, with favorable national policies and new economic development opportunities, the chip industry will continue to develop rapidly, and achieve a significant increase in demand as well as technological breakthroughs. The Group’s Comtech will actively leverage its advantages in the industry and technology to capture the opportunities arising from AI-driven chips market to strategize the development of its chip business. In the second half of the year, with the delivery of AI orders, our sales revenue is expected to grow, while Comtech’s earnings for the second half of the year are expected to improve and remain at the similar level as the corresponding period of the previous year.

Looking ahead, the development of AI has risen to the level of national strategy, and will move forward rapidly in China. The Group has actively optimized and improved its business around the AI industry, and is continuously expanding new development opportunities for Comtech and Ingdan, cultivating the chip business, and striving to create a ‘Chips-Devices-Cloud’ ecosystem, to meet the needs of the expanding AI industry. At the same time, the Group is also moving quickly to develop its new energy smart battery cloud business, focusing on the development potential of the two-wheeler battery cloud service field, and mastering the massive big data with the help of “Ingdan Cloud” to seize the RMB 100 billion “blue ocean” market and create a foundation for the Group’s sustainable profitability. In the near term, the Group will continue to make progress on A-Share listing, accelerating the expansion initiatives in the trillion-RMB chip market in China, and add new growth momentum to our core business—with the goal of supporting the Group’s sustainable development and creating long-term returns for shareholders.”

Caution Statement

The information contained in this document has not been independently verified. No representation, warranty or undertaking, express or implied, is made by the Company or any of its affiliates, advisers or representatives as to, and no reliance should be placed on, the fairness, accuracy, completeness or correctness of such information or opinions presented or contained herein. The information contained in this document should be considered in the context of the circumstances prevailing at the time, is subject to change without notice and the Company makes no undertaking to update the information in this document to reflect any developments that occur after the date of the presentation. It is not the Company’s intention to provide, and you may not rely on these materials as providing, a complete or comprehensive analysis of the Company, or its financial or trading position or prospects. Neither of the Company nor any of its affiliates, advisers or representatives accept any responsibility or have any liability whatsoever (in negligence or otherwise) for any loss howsoever arising from any use of this document or its contents or otherwise arising in connection with this document.

This document may contain statements that reflect the Company’s current intent, beliefs, and expectations about the future as of the respective dates indicated herein. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are based on a number of assumptions about the Company’s operations and factors beyond the Company’s control and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, and accordingly, actual results may differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements. Neither the Company nor any of its affiliates, advisers or representatives has any obligation, nor do they undertake, to update these forward-looking statements for any events or developments including the occurrence of unanticipated events that occur subsequent to such dates.

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