Chinese billionaire Robin Zeng loses $14.9 billion as CATL shares tumble

Chinese billionaire Robin Zeng, the founder and chairman of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., has seen $14.9 billion wiped off his fortune since March after shares of the world's largest electric-vehicle battery maker fell sharply on weaker-than-expected earnings.

Zeng, 57, is now worth about $38.3 billion, down from $53.2 billion in March. Nearly all of his wealth comes from his stake in CATL, the company he founded in 2011 in Ningde, in China's southeastern Fujian province.

CATL shares have dropped 33% in Shenzhen and 25% in Hong Kong over that period. The decline deepened on Wednesday, when the stock fell more than 12% in both markets, its worst one-day selloff in more than a year. The Hong Kong shares traded as low as HK$368 ($47.30), their weakest level since July 2025. The company's market value has nearly halved since peaking in May.

Profit growth slows

The selloff followed third-quarter results released on Tuesday. Net profit attributable to shareholders rose 14.5% from a year earlier to 21.25 billion yuan ($3.16 billion), well short of the 41.2% increase analysts had expected and down from growth of 36.5% in the second quarter. Profit also fell 5.8% from the previous three months.

Revenue rose 58.6% to 165.2 billion yuan ($24.6 billion), slightly below forecasts. Gross margin narrowed to 20.69%, the second straight quarterly decline.

In the first nine months of the year, CATL earned 64.53 billion yuan ($9.6 billion), up 31.6%, on revenue of 442.14 billion yuan ($65.8 billion).

Management blamed new tax costs. China reinstated a consumption tax on lithium-ion batteries on Sept. 1 at a transitional rate of 2%, which is set to rise to 4% in September 2027. Separately, the export tax rebate on battery products was cut to 6% from 9% in April and will be scrapped on Jan. 1.

Chief Financial Officer Zheng Shu said the consumption tax is built into product prices, so passing it on to carmakers means renegotiating contracts, and those talks are still under way. CATL said it hopes to "shoulder the costs together" with customers and is developing new products to protect margins.

"Based on the significant fall in profit growth, it seems that the company itself has shouldered the bulk of them," said Kenny Ng, an analyst at Everbright Securities International.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut its rating on the Hong Kong-listed shares to neutral and lowered its earnings forecasts, while keeping an overweight rating on the Shenzhen stock.

Carmakers look for other suppliers

Investors are also watching what Chinese commentators have called "de-CATLization," a push by carmakers to reduce their reliance on a single battery supplier. Li Auto and Xiaomi have started developing their own EV batteries, and Tesla added Sunwoda Electronic as a supplier this year.

Industry data show CATL's share of China's battery market fell to 40.9% in September from 49.8% in January, while rival BYD's rose to 21.1% from 17.4%. Globally, CATL still supplied about 40% of EV batteries installed in the first half of the year, according to SNE Research, and counts almost every major carmaker as a customer.

The company said growth of 20% to 30% in global demand for power and energy-storage batteries is achievable in 2027.

Zeng, who holds a doctorate in physics, co-founded Amperex Technology Ltd. in 1999, making batteries for consumer electronics, before spinning off CATL to supply car batteries. CATL listed in Shenzhen in 2018 and raised about $5.3 billion in a Hong Kong share sale in May 2025.