The "veterans" represented by Zhang Bing are unwilling, with wealth passing by and power falling aside. But this internal power struggle still ended with a complete victory for the Gao family.

01 Game of Thrones

A power struggle within the Tianhe rich family, which has attracted attention in the industry, has finally come to an end.

According to official information on March 21, Gao Haichun announced that Trina Solar (688599. SH) co-chairman, chairman and president of Tianhe Fujia, appeared at the symposium on strategic cooperation with Hubei Financial Leasing.

Gao Haichun, who was born in the "90s", is the daughter of Gao Jifan, chairman of Trina Solar. As a subsidiary of Trina Solar, Trina Rich is an important carrier for its distributed photovoltaic business and occupies an important position in the distributed photovoltaic market.

Judging from the titles of recent activities, Gao Haichun has achieved the "one shoulder" of chairman and president. Just two weeks ago, the position of president of Tianhe Fujia was still held by Zhang Bing, an "old minister".

On February 25, media reported that Zhang Bing had left his post. That night, Zhang Bing himself told reporters that he was "still in the rich family."

Fifteen days later, on March 12, Tianhe Fujia made a change in its industrial and commercial registration. The positions of general manager and legal representative were changed from Zhang Bing to Gao Haichun.

At the same time, Gao Jifan, Gao Haichun's father and chairman of Trina Solar, also serves as the co-president of Trina Rich to ensure the efficient operation of management and "escort" his daughter.

This means that the Gao family has officially "recycled" the control of the Tianhe rich family.

According to a person close to Trina Solar, Gao Haichun has served as the chairman of Trina Rich as early as June 2022, but at that time, he was still young and had not yet been able to coordinate the overall situation; Therefore, a "dual-track system" has been formed within Tianhe Fujia, with the Gao family of the chairman of the board of directors and the team of professional managers of the former president each based on one side.

02 How big is the impact of the "dual system"?

According to other industry insiders, Gao Jifan was forced to step down as chairman by Zhu Zhiguo, the former COO of Trina Solar, and other members of the joint board of directors in 2017.

Before leaving Trina Solar, Zhu Zhiguo was in charge of the company's production, supply and marketing, as well as module business, and could be said to have real power.

The "forced palace" incident many years ago may have left a deep memory for Gao Jifan and learned a lesson. Therefore, on the issue of the management of the Tianhe rich family, Gao Jifan resolutely stood in line for his daughter.

At the annual meeting of Trina Solar at the end of 2024, many of the employees who were commended belonged to the Gao Haichun faction of Trina's wealthy family. Gao Jifan did this in order to establish prestige for Gao Haichun.

There is a saying in the industry that before the Spring Festival last year, Gao Jifan had an unhappy relationship with Zhang Bing and other old ministers.

Gao Jifan tried to "release the military power with a glass of wine", while Zhang Bing also wanted to retain the original power framework of the Tianhe rich family. The conflict of fundamental interests eventually turned into a dispute on the surface.

In particular, after the failure of Tianhe Fujia's listing, it was difficult to fulfill the wealth vision promised to the "veteran" team of Fujia in the capital market.

Previously, after the capital increase and share expansion, Tianhe Fujia set up an employee incentive platform. In 2022, Trina Solar had planned to spin off the IPO of Trina Fujia, but the plan was terminated at the end of 2024. At present, Zhang Bing still holds the equity of Tianhe Fujia.

The "veterans" represented by Zhang Bing, whose wealth has passed by and power has fallen, are of course unwilling.

No matter how unwilling, this power struggle within the Tianhe rich family ended temporarily with the Gao family's complete victory.

In the industrial and commercial registration information disclosed to the public, Zhang Bing is currently a director of Tianhe Fujia.

As for Zhang Bing's future whereabouts, there are rumors in the industry that Zhang Bing may return to his old club Tongwei (600438. SH) inaugurated. Prior to Tianhe, Zhang Bing worked in a subsidiary of Tongwei Co., Ltd.

03 Can the second generation eat?

If you want to wear a crown, you must first bear its weight.

After "Ann Nei", Gao Haichun was left to lead the Tianhe rich family to "go outside", which was even more severe.

The industry environment has ushered in drastic changes, and the competitive landscape is also turbulent. In such a situation, it is necessary to straighten out the power system.

On January 23, the National Energy Administration revised and issued the "Administrative Measures for the Development and Construction of Distributed Photovoltaic Power Generation". The new policy stipulates that general industrial and commercial distributed photovoltaic projects connected to the grid after May 1 are prohibited from being fully connected to the grid, and can only choose the mode of all self-generation or self-consumption and surplus electricity grid.

Distributed photovoltaics are mainly divided into two categories: commercial and residential, both of which belong to small-scale photovoltaic power generation systems. In 2024, the installed capacity of distributed new photovoltaic power generation will account for 43% of the total.

At present, due to the high proportion of distributed photovoltaic low-voltage access and the limited carrying capacity of the power grid, under this policy, the consumption mode of industrial and commercial distributed full grid access will be prohibited.

In addition, according to the electricity price reform document released on February 9, from June 1 this year, new energy electricity will be fully market-oriented, and the feed-in tariff will no longer have the national grid price. This means that the surplus electricity of the power generation side will have to participate in the electricity market. As a result, the return on the original distributed investment has been greatly reduced, and the IRR has been reduced accordingly.

Earnings declined, and industrial and commercial PV projects for investment purposes either stalled or exited in a short period of time.

Last year, TRW had predicted major changes in the electricity market and reduced the pressure on the channel ahead of schedule.

Starting from July 2024, Tianhe Fujia will assist more than 2,000 dealers across the country to adopt the "destocking" strategy and make every effort to promote the project to be connected to the grid before the "deadline".

Trina's strategy is quite forward-looking, and the advance layout is also timely. However, with the market shaking and the demand side shrinking, Trina's distributed business will inevitably suffer a considerable degree of impact.

Nowadays, the cake of distributed photovoltaics is shrinking, but the competition is fiercer than imagined. TRW FUJIA's product strength will also be put to the test.

At this moment, BC is attacking the city on the main battlefield of Tianhe's rich family. LONGi's second-generation BC products focus on distribution. According to a domestic module dealer, the product is quite popular in the market, and the current premium is even close to 0.1 yuan/W.

From the data disclosed last year, it can also be seen that although the distributed market is known for its high gross profit, the situation of Tianhe Rich is not optimistic.

In the first half of 2024, Tianhe Fujia's revenue will be 3.378 billion yuan, and its net profit will only be 30 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 91%.

The failure to go public under this performance means that other ways to replenish cash flow need to be found.

However, Trina Solar's deep commitment to distributed systems and O&M, its direct-to-end user business, and its extensive and all-round channel network are key pillars of Trina Solar's solution strategy.

In particular, the above-mentioned distributed investment return model has undergone significant changes, and in order to improve the economics of downstream customers, the integration of photovoltaic and storage seems to be the best solution at present. And this requires Trina Fujia and Trina Solar to work together and work together.

With the internal power dispute coming to an end and the Gao family's power inheritance smoothly connected, the distributed photovoltaic strategy was once again in the hands of Trina Solar. The governance structure of "one hole for profit" is conducive to the smooth implementation of the strategy.

Next, under the drastic changes facing the industry, whether Gao Haichun can lead Tianhe Fujia to another new height will become one of the most concerned suspense in the photovoltaic field. (Alpha Factory Green).