A two-year "family feud" has reached its conclusion.
On September 29, 2025, controlling shareholder Shanshan Group Co., Ltd. (Shanshan Group) and its wholly-owned subsidiary Ningbo Pengze Trading Co., Ltd. (Pengze Trading) signed a "Restructuring Investment Agreement" with the Shanshan Group administrator and a consortium of restructuring investors. Ren Yuanlin, known as China's "private ship king," is expected to take control. The restructuring investor consortium includes New Yangzi Commercial, Xinyang Ship, TCL Industrial Investment, and Orient Asset Management Shenzhen Branch.
This control battle triggered by founder Zheng Yonggang's sudden death has gone through disputes between his son Zheng Ju and wife Zhou Ting over board seats, chairman succession, and judicial enforcement before finally concluding. Now, with new actual controller Ren Yuanlin entering the scene, Ningbo Shanshan Co.,Ltd. will not only welcome a new capital helmsman but also face multiple challenges including performance recovery, industrial integration, and strategic restructuring.
**35 Billion Yuan Shanshan Restructuring Progress** **72-Year-Old China Private Ship King May Take Control**
On the evening of September 30, Ningbo Shanshan Co.,Ltd. ("Shanshan", 600884.SH) announced that controlling shareholder Shanshan Group Co., Ltd. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Ningbo Pengze Trading Co., Ltd., along with the Shanshan Group administrator (appointed by Yinzhou District People's Court of Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province for the merged restructuring case of Shanshan Group and Pengze Trading), signed a "Restructuring Investment Agreement" with a consortium of restructuring investors including Jiangsu New Yangzi Commercial Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Xinyang Ship Investment Co., Ltd., Xiamen TCL Technology Industrial Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership), and China Orient Asset Management Co., Ltd. Shenzhen Branch.
According to the announcement, the restructuring investors plan to obtain control of 23.36% of Shanshan shares held by Shanshan Group and Pengze Trading through three methods: "direct acquisition + forming partnerships with service trusts for acquisition + delegating voting rights for remaining retained stocks."
Shanshan stated that if the restructuring succeeds, the company's control will change, with the controlling shareholder becoming the investor holding platform, and the actual controller changing to Ren Yuanlin.
According to the agreement, the consortium will pay approximately 3.284 billion yuan to acquire control of 23.36% equity in Shanshan.
Notably, 72-year-old Ren Yuanlin is the founder of domestic private shipbuilding enterprise Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, known in the industry as "China's private ship king."
In 2007, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding listed in Singapore. Yangzijiang Financial Holding was spun off from Yangzijiang Shipbuilding's investment business division in 2021 and listed on the Singapore Exchange in April 2022. New Yangzi Commercial, as the main domestic investment platform under Yangzijiang Financial Holding, has invested in 57 companies across metals, shipbuilding, chemicals, and new energy sectors.
**End of Family Feud**
In February 2023, the "Shanshan system" faced continuous troubles shortly after founder Zheng Yonggang's death. First, the "family dispute" between his son Zheng Ju and widow Zhou Ting caused chaos, followed by escalating funding chain crises that eventually plunged this former apparel giant and current lithium battery material leader into a control change predicament.
After Zheng Yonggang's death, his eldest son Zheng Ju acted quickly, unanimously elected as Shanshan chairman in March 2023, but this result was strongly opposed by widow Zhou Ting. Zhou Ting claimed she should be the first-in-line heir and once intervened in corporate governance as the "legal heir." Subsequently, both sides engaged in prolonged disputes over board seats, information disclosure, and corporate strategy.
The turning point came in November 2024, when Shanshan announced Zheng Ju's resignation as chairman, with Zhou Ting taking over. This nearly two-year succession battle seemed to end with the widow's victory. However, the turmoil did not subside. In February 2025, Shanshan Group was ruled to enter bankruptcy restructuring, officially ending the era of family control.
More critically, due to joint guarantee liability, Zheng Ju's 1.81 million Shanshan shares were subject to court enforcement, reducing his holdings to zero and completely exiting the corporate governance stage.
On February 25, 2025, Yinzhou District Court in Ningbo ruled to accept Shanshan Group's bankruptcy restructuring case. On March 20, the court ruled for substantial merger restructuring of Shanshan Group and its wholly-owned subsidiary Pengze Trading. On June 6, the administrator issued a notice recruiting prospective investors.
**Strong Recovery in Lithium Battery Market** **Shanshan Share Price Doubles Year-to-Date**
Driven by global energy structure transformation and electrification trends, the lithium battery industry experienced a "strong rebound" in the first half of 2025. The anode material sector, as a core lithium battery material segment, was first to emerge from the previous adjustment cycle, showing a positive pattern of "stable volume and price, increased concentration."
Against this backdrop, artificial graphite anode leader Shanshan delivered an excellent interim report—in the first half, the company achieved operating revenue of 9.858 billion yuan, up 11.78% year-on-year; net profit attributable to listed company shareholders of 207 million yuan, up 1079.59% year-on-year; the two core main businesses combined achieved net profit of 415 million yuan. As of September 30, Shanshan's share price rose 5.37%, up 113.42% year-to-date, closing at 15.9 yuan per share.
In the first half of 2025, national-level policies intensively introduced multiple supportive measures for lithium battery and energy storage industry development, creating a favorable development environment for anode material companies.
Beyond capturing domestic policy dividends, Shanshan is actively promoting "global layout" to address growing global lithium battery market demand.
In the first half of 2025, the company's 100,000-ton anode material capacity project in Finland progressed smoothly, having passed EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) environmental review publicity. Once completed, this project will become an important base for Shanshan to serve European new energy vehicle and energy storage markets, effectively reducing tariffs and logistics costs while enhancing competitiveness in European markets. Simultaneously, the company signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Falcon Energy Materials plc. to jointly expand natural graphite material markets, further improving global supply chain layout and rapidly responding to global customer demand for high-performance anode materials.
From a technology accumulation perspective, Shanshan's "first-mover advantage" in the anode sector is difficult to replicate. Since beginning industrial anode material production in 1999, the company has accumulated over 20 years of R&D and production experience in lithium battery anode materials, making it a "pioneer" and "technology leader" in China's anode material industry. Anode material subsidiary Ningbo Shanshan New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. has been selected for "National Enterprise Technology Center" and "National Manufacturing Single Champion" lists, while Shanghai Shanshan Technology Co., Ltd. was selected for the third batch of national-level specialized and innovative "little giant" enterprise list, with these honors reflecting the company's deep technological foundation.
As of June 30, 2025, Shanshan held 359 authorized patents in anode materials, including 12 international patents, 234 domestic invention patents, and 113 utility model patents.
The industry generally holds optimistic views on anode material trends for the second half.
With continued increase in new energy vehicle penetration rates and continuation of energy storage "installation rush," the lithium battery industry's high prosperity is expected to continue, making demand growth for anode materials as a core segment more certain. In this context, Shanshan, with its comprehensive advantages in technology, capacity, customers, and supply chain, is positioned to continue benefiting from industry recovery dividends.
From an industry perspective, "structural opportunities" in the anode sector will continue.
As downstream customers continuously raise requirements for lithium battery energy density, fast-charging performance, and cycle life, market demand for new products like fast-charging anodes, silicon-based anodes, and hard carbon anodes will grow rapidly. Shanshan, as a technology leader in these fields, is positioned to capture more market share through product advantages. Meanwhile, the trend of increasing industry concentration will continue, further strengthening competitive barriers for leading companies.
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