By Michael Elkins
Reports have surfaced suggesting that digital freight platform Full Truck Alliance (NYSE:YMM) will acquire the China arm of Plus, an autonomous driving truck company.
In February of 2021, Plus completed financing of $200 million. Full Truck Alliance served as a co-investor and became one of the largest shareholders of Plus. Full Truck Alliance previously held a 30% equity stake in the autonomous trucking company. This stake was eventually reduced to 25% after other investors were introduced to the venture.
As of December 2020, Full Truck Alliance held 60.37% of the voting rights of Plus but claimed that it has no actual control over the latter’s major decisions such as operations and financing activities.
Near the end of 2021, Plus terminated a merger agreement and restructuring plan with special purpose acquisition company, Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. With the merger cancelled, the company also terminated its listing plans.
After the listing plan failed, insiders suggested that Plus should try to emulate TuSimple and split their business into two parts in China and the US. With the American portion being listed on the NASDAQ.
Full Truck Alliance, for its part, saw gains topping almost 14% on Thursday after the company reported better-than-feared earnings during what was a difficult quarter for the Chinese economy. This boost comes at the same time China's State Council unveiled a new 19-point stimulus plan centered around infrastructure spending, amounting to about $117 billion.