(Yicai Global) March 9 -- Major Chinese lithium battery maker EVE Energy will raise CNY2.5 billion (USD361 million) via a private share placement to hike its output of lithium batteries, including those for true wireless stereo headsets, and consolidate its capacity advantage in other such market segments, the company announced yesterday.

Guangdong province-based EVE Energy's shares [SHE:300014] closed down 5.08 percent today at CNY67.51 (USD9.72) after a slight dip this morning in step with the overall Growth Enterprise Index of Shenzhen-listed companies, which fell 1.57 percent across the board.

The well-known firm will use CNY1 billion of the funding to expand its TWS earphone battery production to 200 million units in a project with a planned construction period of two years, it said.

It shipped 12 million TWS earphones last year in compound annual growth of almost one and a half times, riding rising market demand for lithium batteries, the firm said, citing statistics from market research firm Counterpoint.

EVE Energy started to deliver TWS earphones in batches to South Korea's Samsung Group in the fourth quarter, but its current production is around 3 million to 4 million, not enough to meet demand, data from Huachuang Securities show.

The company can Only overcome this bottleneck, meet fast-growing market demand and consolidate its advantage in the consumer lithium battery field by speeding up construction of advanced capacity and expanding production, it said.

The firm will also use the money to build a high-temperature lithium-manganese battery project for automotive tire pressure testing and Internet of Things applications and a pilot scale production and test center for ternary -- three-part -- square power batteries.

The firm's founders Liu Jincheng and his wife Luo Jinhong are its actual controllers with a 36.9 percent stake, Eve Energy noted in the announcement. The private placement will not induce a change of control and the pair will remain on top of the totem pole after the private placement concludes.

Editor: Ben Armour