CATL’s Record Cash Pile Fuels a $5.5 Billion Buyback as Storage Overtakes EVs as Growth Engine
Published on 07/25/2026 at 17:53 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
The scale of CATL’s financial firepower has rarely been on clearer display. China’s dominant battery manufacturer reported first-half revenue of 276.9 billion yuan ($38.1 billion) on Friday, a 54.8 percent surge from a year earlier, while net profit climbed 42 percent to 43.28 billion yuan. But the headline numbers, impressive as they are, tell only part of the story. What truly caught the market’s attention was the announcement of a share buyback program worth between 20 billion and 40 billion yuan — the largest ever by an A-share listed company — alongside a proposed interim dividend of 14.11 yuan per 10 shares, totaling 6.49 billion yuan.
The buyback plan, which targets up to 92 percent of the half-year profit, is backed by a balance sheet that most industrial companies can only envy. CATL ended June with 372.05 billion yuan in cash and equivalents, while operating cash flow for the period reached 60.22 billion yuan. The maximum repurchase price of 573 yuan per share represents a roughly 49.6 percent premium over the pre-announcement close of 383.01 yuan — a blunt signal from management that it considers the stock deeply undervalued. The shares will be cancelled, immediately reducing the outstanding float.
For the second quarter alone, net profit hit 22.5 billion yuan, up 36.5 percent year-on-year and comfortably ahead of the 29.7 percent growth analysts had penciled in. Quarterly revenue rose 56.9 percent to 147.8 billion yuan. Yet the stock barely stirred, closing Friday at 383.01 yuan, down 0.77 percent on the day. Over the trailing 12 months, the shares have gained 34.78 percent, but they remain 18.29 percent below the 52-week high of 468.75 yuan reached in May. The muted reaction suggests investors had already priced in the operational strength and are now focused on execution risk around the company’s sprawling investment program.
Energy storage is rewriting the business mix
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The electric-vehicle battery division, long CATL’s core, remains the largest revenue contributor at 192.12 billion yuan in the first half, up 46.02 percent. But the energy storage segment is closing the gap at remarkable speed. Storage revenue jumped 87.54 percent to 53.26 billion yuan, powered by demand from grid-scale installations and data centers supporting artificial intelligence workloads. The segment’s gross margin eased from 25.5 percent to 24.0 percent, still a healthy level that underpinned the group’s overall margin of 23.93 percent. Return on equity stood at 11.41 percent.
CATL now expects storage to account for roughly half of global sales by 2030, up from a fraction today. To get there, the company has been on an acquisition and partnership spree. It invested 4.1 billion yuan for a 49 percent stake in Zhongheng Electric, is reportedly in talks to acquire a 38.1 percent interest in data-center operator VNET for about 942 million U.S. dollars, and poured roughly 5 billion yuan into AI startup DeepSeek. A separate cooperation with Haibo Storage will deploy 60 gigawatt-hours of sodium-ion battery technology, and CATL has unveiled a new sodium-ion cell specifically designed for grid storage.
The pivot is strategic: China’s domestic EV market is cooling, with the CPCA forecasting a seasonal retail sales decline in July. By diversifying into stationary storage and AI infrastructure, CATL is insulating itself from the price wars that have squeezed automakers like Volkswagen and Tesla — and, increasingly, their battery suppliers.
Global dominance, with room to grow
Between January and May, CATL held a 40.2 percent share of the global vehicle-battery market, up 2.2 percentage points from the prior-year period. In China, its share of batteries installed in passenger cars reached 46.7 percent; internationally, it stood at 33.7 percent. The company has led the world in energy-storage battery shipments for five consecutive years. Production capacity hit 525 gigawatt-hours, with utilization at 94.86 percent, and another 764 gigawatt-hours are under construction.
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On the technology front, CATL is expanding its ecosystem beyond cell manufacturing. A strategic cooperation with Dalian Deta focuses on vehicle-to-grid technology, battery-swapping stations, and electrification of government fleets — a move that positions the company to control the full battery lifecycle, from production to second-life use to urban energy infrastructure.
The leverage ratio stood at 63.65 percent, a manageable level given the cash cushion. With the buyback signaling confidence and the storage business accelerating, CATL is betting that its transformation from auto supplier to energy-infrastructure giant will eventually close the gap to its May peak. For now, the market is watching the spending spree as closely as the earnings.
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