Midea Group: The World’s Largest Appliance Maker
Up next on our Chinese Company Series list is the Midea Group, a behemoth appliance manufacturer. Midea Group has been around for over 55 years, with roots in Foshan City, Guangdong Province, China.
Let’s dive into the key components of Midea Group including the products, history, and financials.
Check out our last entry on Kweichow Moutai: China’s Largest Alcohol and Spirit Producer.
Midea Products
The Midea group primarily sells home appliances and commercial air conditioners. The underlying success of Midea Group comes from the ability to sell domestically under its own name as well as to many global brands as an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM).
The specific products that Midea Group generates revenue from include:
Air conditioners…
- Both domestic and commercial
Large appliances like…
- Refrigerators
- Washing machines
- Dishwashers
Small appliances such as…
- Microwave ovens
- Conventional ovens
- Kettles
- Water dispensers
- Vacuum cleaners
- Rice Cookers
- Blenders
Automotive and Building Technology components like…
- Electric water pumps
- Oil pumps
- Compressors
- Power steering motors
Not Afraid of GIANT Projects
Midea Group hasn’t been afraid to tackle large projects, with their involvement in providing HVAC systems in all 12 stadiums of the 2016 Brazil Olympic Games and a majority of the stadiums for the 2014 Brazil World Cup.
Company History
Midea Group was founded in 1968 by He Xiangjian. Since its inception, the company has grown to over 150,000 employees, 200 subsidiaries, and 60 overseas branches.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the major milestones that Midea Group has achieved:
- 1968 – He Xiangjian started with only ¥5,000, producing bottle lids in his small workshop.
- 1980 – Midea Group began producing electric fans.
- 1985 – Midea Group entered the Air Conditioning industry.
- 1998 – Midea was able to exceed ¥5 billion CNY (~$700 million USD) of revenue in a single year.
- 2004 – The organization further diversifies by acquiring strategic companies and expanding in to new categories like refrigerators and washing machines.
- 2007 – Midea Group built its first overseas plant in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
- 2010 – Midea Group’s annual revenue exceeds ¥100 billion CNY (~$14 billion USD) .
- 2013 – Midea Group went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
- 2016 – In a year of big acquisitions, Midea Group pruchases Toshiba‘s home appliances business for $477 million USD, followed by the even larger purchase of, the German robotics company KUKA, and finally floor care giant Eureka.
- 2016 – Midea Group makes the Fortune Global 500 list.
Top Line Financials
Midea has been on an impressive revenue growth streak since going public in 2013. The firm increased annual revenue by over ¥224 billion RMB (~$31 billion USD) and nearly tripled revenue in these 9 years. For reference, Midea’s 2022 revenue in USD was ~$48 billion.
The stock price has (mostly) reflected the strong financials. The stock opened at 11 RMB per share in early 2013. It then grew steadily to the mid-50s RMB per share by the beginning of the 2020 pandemic.
After a surge to over 107 RMB in 2021, the price is now trading around 56 RMB as of writing this article in 2023/7. For longer-term investors, the stock has performed excellently.
Current data from MarketScreener has Midea continuing its solid growth over the next several years – hitting nearly ¥440 billion RMB in revenue by 2025 ($61 billion USD). It’s important to note that this is a technical prediction based on current data the company has publicly provided.
Would you like to add this stock to your portfolio? Midea Group is a core component of ExpatInvest’s CSI 300 Enhanced Fund.
Sources & further reading:
Share this article:
