CATL's discounted equity raise rattles market; Tencent Cloud up for a third straight session YTD | Daily News Recap

0428 ｜Dolphin Focus:

🐬 Macro / Industry

1. The CPC Politburo met on Apr 28 to review the current economy and policy priorities. It judged the recovery as broadly stable with a solid start and strengthening resilience, but noted that endogenous momentum still needs reinforcement and the recovery base remains fragile. Policy will stick to the 'seeking progress while maintaining stability' stance, with proactive fiscal and prudent monetary policy to steady the macro backdrop. Priorities include boosting domestic demand, de-risking property and local government debt in an orderly manner, and advancing 'AI+' industrial upgrades to stabilize expectations and underpin the full-year recovery.

🐬 Single Stocks

1.$CATL(03750.HK)

CATL completed a sizable H-share placement in Hong Kong, issuing 62.385 mn new H-shares at HK$628.2 per share, a ~7% discount to the prior close, raising approx. HK$39.2bn. The deal is meaningfully dilutive, with the new shares a high proportion of the enlarged H-share base, pressuring EPS and book value per share. A discounted raise by the sector leader sends a negative signal. Coupled with heavy profit-taking and ongoing price competition across the industry, multiple headwinds triggered concentrated selling and a sharp near-term drop in the share price.

2.$LEAPMOTOR(09863.HK)

Leapmotor announced plans to launch a new second brand in 2027, expanding its brand matrix with products priced above RMB 300,000. The aim is to step out of the cutthroat mass market, penetrate the mid- to high-end NEV segment, and improve the profit mix by breaking free from low-price competition. Leveraging in-house R&D, the new brand could unlock incremental volume and enrich the product ladder.

3.$Meta Platforms(META.US)

Meta announced a partnership with clean-energy firm Overview Energy to secure up to 1 GW of space-based solar power, roughly comparable to a single nuclear reactor’s output. With AI driving a surge in compute needs, data center power demand is climbing, and space PV offers a long-duration energy solution. The deal supports low-carbon electricity at lower costs and pilots a new clean-energy model, offering a fresh blueprint for Big Tech’s green transition.

4.$TENCENT(00700.HK)

Tencent Cloud said its AI code assistants, CodeBuddy and WorkBuddy, will raise prices on May 15, with the Enterprise Flagship plan up from RMB 78 to RMB 198 per user per month (+~154%) and the Exclusive plan up 100%. This is Tencent Cloud’s third price hike this year, driven by surging AI compute demand and high GPU hardware costs. The move relieves cost pressure and repairs profitability, and signals the cloud industry is moving past a cuts-only pricing era toward rational pricing. It lifts near-term enterprise cloud costs but could force quality upgrades and better align AI service value with price over time.

5. Coca-Cola, Spotify, BYD and Focus Media will report earnings.