Chinese electric vehicle (EV) startup Zhejiang Leapmotor Tech has won approval to list its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in an initial public offering (IPO) expected to raise between US$1bn and US$1.5bn, according to local reports citing industry sources.
Leapmotor, based in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, hopes to launch the IPO in September and plans to hold a series of investor meetings next week to generate demand for its shares.
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If successful, Leapmotor would be the fourth EV manufacturer to list in Kong Kong in just over a year, after XPeng raised US$2.1bn in June 2021, Li Auto US$1.7bn the following August while Nio listed in March 2022 without raising funds.
All three of these companies are also listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Leapmotor was founded in 2015, but EV production was launched only in 2020 under contract by local automaker Hangzhou Changjiang Automobile.
The company sold almost 45,000 vehicles last year, split between the battery-powered S01 coupe, C11 compact SUV and T01 sub-compact car models. Last May, the company unveiled the C01, its first production model using cell to chassis technology.
