CATL posts 42% profit jump, unveils up to $5.5B buyback

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, the world's largest power battery maker, reported a 42% year-on-year rise in first-half net profit and unveiled a buyback plan worth up to 40 billion yuan, signaling confidence in its continued growth trajectory.

Record First-Half Results

CATL posted net profit attributable to shareholders of 43.28 billion yuan ($6.37 billion) for the first half of 2026, up 41.98% from a year earlier, according to its half-year report released on Thursday. Revenue climbed 54.8% to 276.92 billion yuan, while gross profit rose 48% to 66.26 billion yuan.english.news18a+1

The results build on a strong first quarter in which profit grew 48.5% to 20.74 billion yuan. Basic earnings per share for the half reached 9.51 yuan, a 37.4% increase. However, gross margin slipped 1.09 percentage points to 23.93%, suggesting pricing pressure even as volumes surged.moomoo+3

The Shenzhen-listed company's growth has been increasingly propelled by energy storage systems, a business that has benefited from the global build-out of AI data centers requiring reliable backup power. CATL told Reuters in June that it expects energy storage to account for half of global sales by 2030, up from roughly a quarter today. Global energy storage demand is forecast to rise 40% year-on-year in 2026, driven primarily by AI data center load growth.hellochinatech+1

Buyback to Boost Shareholder Returns

Alongside earnings, CATL's board approved a plan to repurchase between 20 billion and 40 billion yuan of its A-shares through centralized bidding at a maximum price of 573 yuan per share. The repurchased shares will be canceled to reduce registered capital, directly boosting earnings per share.moomoo+1

Based on the upper limit, the buyback would cover about 69.81 million shares, or 1.51% of total share capital, and represent roughly 10.75% of CATL's cash holdings of 372 billion yuan as of June 30. The plan requires shareholder approval and must be completed within 12 months.moomoo

Dominance Amid Shifting Landscape

CATL held a 42.7% share of China's power battery installations in June, though that figure slipped 3.43 percentage points from May. The company shipped 661 gigawatt-hours of batteries in 2025 and has continued expanding capacity, including through a Hong Kong share placement that raised approximately $5 billion in April.mercomcapital+1

With total assets exceeding 1.13 trillion yuan and a cash pile built on operating cash flow of 60.2 billion yuan in the first half alone, CATL appears positioned to fund both its buyback ambitions and continued investment in next-generation storage technology.moomoo