Battery Maker CALB Gets Green Light for Hong Kong Listing
Major battery manufacturer China Aviation Lithium Battery (CALB) received approval on September 8 from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to carry out a public listing. CALB will begin assessing demand for the IPO as early as next week and is expected to raise up to $2 billion, with Huatai Securities serving as the sole sponsor. If the listing hearing goes through, it could be completed as soon as September.
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, CALB is the country’s third-largest power battery maker after CATL and BYD. Data from the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance show that in 2021, the installed capacity of CALB’s power batteries was 9.05GWh, behind only CATL and BYD. In July this year, CALB earned 25.23% of the domestic power battery market, also trailing CATL and BYD.
In terms of the global market, according to the latest report by SNE Research, in July this year, CALB overtook South Korea’s Samsung SDI to rank sixth in the world with a total installed capacity of 2.1 GWh.
On March 11, the company filed paperwork to go public via a listing on the HKEx that would raise $1.5 billion. If successful, this will be the largest IPO in Hong Kong so far in 2022.
According to the prospectus, the resulting funds will be used to build and expand several industrial base projects for power batteries and energy storage systems, as well as the R&D of advanced technologies. According to a plan outlined by CALB’s chairman Liu Jingyu last year, the company will increase its power battery capacity to 500GWh by 2025 and 1,000 GWH by 2030.
SEE ALSO: CALB to Launch New Battery With Longer Cruising Range
However, on August 1, top Chinese power battery company CATL filed a patent infringement lawsuit against CALB for 130 million yuan ($18.72 million).
As early as last July, CATL filed a lawsuit against CALB for five patent infringements, involving positive pole pieces and batteries, explosion-proof devices, collecting components and batteries, lithium-ion batteries, and power batteries. CALB was required to stop its infringement and issue a compensation of 185 million yuan.
In May this year, CATL raised the compensation to 518 million yuan. At present, the lawsuit has entered the trial stage, and parts of the case will be held in court in the coming days.
