Live coverage of Lujiazui Forum | Shanghai Bank’s financial innovation helps capital and talent “go both ways”
Good news comes from the 14th Lujiazui Forum in 2024.
At the 2024 Lujiazui Forum "Science and Technology Innovation Finance Studio" special event held on the afternoon of June 20, Shanghai Bank's "Employee Stock Ownership Financing" was officially released as one of Shanghai's 2024 full life cycle science and technology innovation financial service products.
"Employee Stock Ownership Financing" focuses on the funding needs of growth-stage technology companies, especially unlisted technology companies that cannot raise funds through the public market, and supports the rapid development of technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises with innovative financial services.
As one of Shanghai's three leading industries, the integrated circuit industry has the characteristics of high investment, long cycle, and high technical threshold. If related companies want to achieve stable growth, sufficient financial support and a stable talent team are indispensable.
Z Technology Chip Company was established in Lingang, Shanghai. Its main product is silicon carbide semiconductors, which are third-generation semiconductor materials. They are key core components that support the independent innovation, development, transformation and upgrading of the next generation of mobile communications, new energy vehicles, high-speed trains, energy Internet, national defense and military industries. It is one of the few mature chip suppliers in China that independently develops, processes, produces and tests its own chips.
With the improvement of the company's R&D capabilities and market recognition, the continuous growth of R&D investment, the demand for funds to increase production capacity due to the expansion of market scale, and the stability of the core talent team have received great attention from the management of Company Z. "Only by playing the two cards of 'funds and talents' well can we remain invincible in the fierce market competition." The relevant person in charge of the company admitted.
As a long-term partner, Shanghai Bank recommended the "Technology Enterprise Employee Stock Ownership Plan and Equity Incentive Loan" product to Z Company after learning about its needs. After obtaining the company's approval, it immediately designed a plan and ultimately issued employee stock ownership plan loans totaling more than 20 million yuan. At the same time, it incentivized more than 40 employees, including senior executives and core technical personnel of Z Company, strengthening the cohesion of the existing core backbone team, consolidating the core team's human resource foundation for subsequent capacity expansion, and realizing the "two-way flow" of funds and talents.
Thanks to the "Banking, Insurance and Technology Finance Innovation Experimental Base" in the Lingang New Area, Shanghai Bank integrated internal resources at the first opportunity, actively applied for pilot qualifications for employee stock ownership plans and equity incentive loan businesses for technology companies, obtained the first batch of pilot bank qualifications, and quickly landed the first order in the industry.
The employee stock ownership financing business of science and technology enterprises is to support high-growth science and technology enterprises, and to support the actual controllers, senior executives, key employees, and legal shareholders of enterprises to directly or through the shareholding platform participate in the enterprise equity incentive, employee stock ownership plan, private placement, restructuring, and the acquisition of the target enterprise shares held by other shareholders by the management of the enterprise. "This product focuses on solving the problem of disconnection between existing financial products and the individual needs of technology-based enterprises, which is conducive to promoting a virtuous cycle of finance and technology." A person from Shanghai Bank said.
Combining serving the real economy and doing a good job in the "five major articles" of finance, and focusing on Shanghai's "2" modern industrial system framework, Shanghai Bank has elevated "technology finance" to a strategic level and continuously optimized the financial services for technology-based enterprises throughout their life cycle.
Accelerate channel construction. Integrate external resources such as industry, government, research, and academia to form a multi-party cooperation model. Sign a strategic cooperation agreement with the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology to better support the industrialization of R&D activities of scientific and technological enterprises through special products such as R&D loans.
Focus on the development of key industrial parks. Deepen support for high-tech, innovative key industrial clusters in the Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao, and take the lead in organizing and implementing precise docking of projects in Zhangjiang, Lingang, and DaZero Bay, the first batch of future industrial pilot zones in Shanghai.
Create exclusive products. According to the different life cycles of science and technology enterprises in the core area, we have created financial service products such as "incubation loan", "acceleration loan" and "starting loan" for different stages such as "0 to 1", "1 to 10" and "10 to 100", and standardized, online and intelligent products.
