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BEIJING, September 19 (TMTPOST)— Another Tesla’s Chinese rival is going to go public with an usually major fundraising this year in the lackluster Hong Kong market.
Source: Leapmotor
Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology Co., Ltd. will sell 130.8 million Hong Kong shares with the offering price guidance range from HK$48.00 to HK$62.00 each, and the shares are poised to start trading under the stock code “9863” on September 29, according to a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) on Monday.
The issuance marks HKEX will brace the fourth prominent Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers following three peers—Xpeng, Li Auto and NIO, which first listed in the United States and then went back to launch secondary listing in Hong Kong amid rising tensions between U.S. and China. On March 10, NIO landed Hong Kong by means of introduction, an unusual direct listing without any offering, and becomes the last one of these three EV companies being traded in financial hub.
Through the listing, Leapmotor aims to raise up to about HK$8.1 billion (US$1.03 billion) and is expected to boost Hong Kong’s primary equity market after a mega initial public offering (IPO) three weeks ago. China Tourism Group Duty Free Corp. (CDFG), the world’s largest duty-free retailer, sold 102.8 million with more than HK$16.2 billion (US$2 billion) listing on August 25, creating the largest ever IPO of the year in Hong Kong, where previously saw all but one new offering raised no more than US$1 billion since the beginning of 2022.
The poor performance of new shares this year did hurt investors’ appetite. Leapmotor reduced its IPO size for its original target was to raise US$1.5 billion, Reuters cited people familiar with the matter. And the company once held back the IPO two weeks ago after its initial briefing with potential investors amid the volatility of financial markets, the sources also said.
Leapmotor released earlier this month that it delivered 12,525 vehicles in August, setting its monthly delivery record for four months in a row with a robust year-over-year increase of 180%. The EV company has sold more than 10,000 units for the fourth consecutive month and the accumulative sales in the first eight months of the year reached 76,563 vehicles, behind HOZON Auto’s brand Nezha and Xpeng, the only two emerging Chinese EV makers that topped 90,000 units in the same period.
While delivery remained rapid growth, Leapmotor widened losses in recent years. Prospectus showed it booked loss of RMB2.846 billion in 2021, widening more than two times from the previous year, and the three months ended March 31 2022 saw a quarterly loss o RMB1.04 billion, compared with the loss of 39.7 million in the same period of 2021.
