By Michael Elkins
Leapmotor, a Chinese electric vehicle company based in Hangzhou, announced on Tuesday that the company will issue 131 million shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at a price of HK $48 to HK $62 ($6.12 – $7.9) per share. Shares in the electric vehicle maker will start trading on September 29th. With an upper limit of HK $62, the market value of Leapmotor is estimated at about HK $70.848 billion ($9.03 billion), and the highest fundraising through this IPO could be as much as HK $8.1 billion ($1 billion).
According to public information, Leapmotor has completed seven rounds of financing, and at least 12 billion yuan of financing has been completed. Investors include Sequoia China, China Capital Investment Group (CCIG), Hangzhou Municipal Government Venture Capital Fund, China Capital Management, SDIC Chuangyi, Honghua Capital and Shanghai Electric.
The majority of the cash raised will be used for research and development and expanding production capacity, the filings showed.
Leapmotor released its first mass production model, the S01, in 2017. Since then, the company has successively launched three models, including the electric supermini T03, mid-size electric crossover SUV C11 and mid-size sedan C01.
When compared to other Chinese electric vehicle companies like Nio Inc (NYSE:NIO), Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI) and Xpeng (NYSE:XPEV), Leapmotor is considered slightly low key. In August this year, the delivery volume of Leapmotor was 12,525, an increase of over 180% year-on-year. From January to August, its cumulative delivery volume was 76,563 vehicles, making Leapmotor one of the fastest growing electric vehicle companies in China.
Final pricing of the shares is due to occur on Friday and the stock will start trading on Sept. 29.