On March 29, GCL-Poly and GCL New Energy jointly released their fiscal year (FY) 2021 financial reports on a press conference airing in Hong Kong, Suzhou and Xuzhou via live stream. Present at the event were Zhu Gongshan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of GCL-Poly, Zhu Yufeng, Chairman of the Board of Directors of GCL New Energy, Zhu Zhanjun, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and Co-CEO of GCL-Poly, Lan Tianshi, Co-CEO, and other related executives from GCL-Poly and GCL New Energy.

On March 28, GCL-Poly and GCL New Energy each officially gave their FY 2021 reports. GCL-Poly has achieved its best business outcomes so far, with an operating income of 19.698 billion yuan. The photovoltaic material business alone has generated a profit of 5.534 billion yuan, and the net profit attributable to the shareholders has reached 5.084 billion yuan. More encouraging are the following facts: the annual R&D investment exceeds 1 billion yuan, doubling that of 2020; the asset-liability ratio drops below 50%, and the financing cost is lowered to only 60% of that of 2020. GCL New Energy announced that its sales of PV power plants have reached a total installed capacity of over 2.9 GW. Coupled with the debt restructuring and placement, the corporate debt ratio drops from 81% same time last year to 56%, a successful realization of the asset-light strategy. Meanwhile, the company continues to promote its hydrogen energy business, expanding its clean energy portfolio.

Zhu Gongshan said at the conference that for GCL-Poly and GCL New Energy, 2021 was a year of chrysalis, of upgrading and of breakthrough. Taking it to its full of the policy opportunity of the "dual carbon" goals, relying on science and technology as the driving force, capital as the fuel and management as the engine, the two companies have resorted to multiple measures and strategies: cost-down, business mode upgrading and reforming, paradigm shifting, focusing on silicon materials, intensive cultivation in the fields of silicon energy, solar energy and hydrogen energy, etc. And pains have begotten gains: technology innovations, transformations and transactions, assets optimization, base construction, marketing breakthroughs have all been successfully realized as planned, a "Phoenix Nirvana" in the real sense.

A decade of sharpening its Excalibur, GCL-Poly had developed FBR granular silicon independently, made the breakthrough and started its commercial mass production in 2019. At present, Xuzhou Granular Silicon Base is running smoothly at a production capacity of 30,000 tons. The power consumption per kilogram is at 14.8 degrees and stable, three-quarters lower than that of the traditional Siemens method. With the price of raw material industrial silicon and silicon material rising sharply, GCL-Poly FBR granular silicon allows for a gross profit margin 15% higher than that of rod silicon and a carbon emission drop by 60%-70%, qualifying itslef the greenest polysilicon material that best meets the "double carbon" goals by far. Currently, the company has replicated the Xuzhou mode and has ongoing the construction of a 100,000-ton production base in Xuzhou, a 100,000-ton one in Leshan and a 300,000-ton one in Baotou respectively, forming a production "tripod" in the east, west and north regions. The total production capacity of GCL-Poly is expected to reach 360,000 tons by the end of 2022.

GCL New Energy continues with the implementation of its asset-light strategy. As of December 31, 2021, the company has accumulatively reduced its debt by approximately 11.2 billion yuan through the sales of photovoltaic power plants, an act of “two birds, one stone”, which has not only greatly reduced the debt ratio, but also bettered the balance of cash flow, and lain a solid capital foundation for the initiation of other new businesses. In July last year, GCL Energy officially put forward its hydrogen energy strategy. While simultaneously advancing its existing photovoltaic power generation business, GCL New Energy will embark on its "hydrogen" journey, in compliance with the requirements and planning of the national "focus on the development of hydrogen production from renewable energy", striving for its growth in the hydrogen energy field.

Looking into the future, Zhu Gongshan declared that GCL-Poly and GCL New Energy will make efforts to sustain science and technology as the core competitiveness, to make it real, stronger and better the innovations under the theme of the national "dual-carbon" strategic goals. GCL is determined to grow into a zero-carbon pioneer by sticking to the principles of high investment, high innovation, high growth, and high profitability, an enterprise that is technology-driven, digitally-empowered, and of green development. Ultimately, GCL seeks to be endorsed by the state, needed by the governments, recognized by the markets, praised by the society, and favored by the shareholders.

The conference was broadcast live on Xueqiu, Futu Moomoo, Comein Finance and other platforms, and about 20,000 investors watched online or phoned in.

In the Q&A section, questions were raised regarding GCL’s development direction, modular replication of granular silicon projects, R&D investment, intellectual property protection and other topics by leading institutions such as Perseverance Asset, Greenwoods Assets, Invesco Great Wall, Credit Suisse Securities, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, UBS, CICC Securities, Sinolink Securities, Changjiang Securities, Western Securities, etc. The management team present at the conference responded accordingly.