EV Startup NIO to IPO on the NYSE at $6.26 Per Share

Electric vehicle startup NIO will officially begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) starting on September 12, under the ticker symbol “NIO”. This is the first Chinese EV startup to go public in the U.S. Founded in 2014, NIO is the second company founded by Chinese entrepreneur William Li to go public in the U.S. Eight years ago, Li led BitAuto, an Internet content and marketing services provider for China's automotive industry, to IPO on the NYSE. SEE ALSO: NIO Updates IPO Prospectus, Seeking to Raise $1.32 Billion NIO's IPO is led by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley. Other underwriters include Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and UBS.

According to Reuters, NIO has priced its shares at $6.26, close to the lower limit of the previously released range of $6.25 to $8.25. Its total market value will reach $6.4 billion with the current issuing price. The capital raised in this IPO is speculated to reach $1.58 billion, with up to $160 million in American depositary shares (ADS). Over the past three years, NIO has experienced a loss of more than $1.6 billion. The massive loss casted doubts upon the company's profitability and vehicle manufacturing abilities. According to its prospectus, in the first half of 2018, NIO's total revenue was only 45.591 million yuan ($6.951 million), 44.39 million of which came from automobile sales. When divided by the unit price of its ES8 vehicle announced at the end of last year, the total sales of the ES8 EV is only at around 90 vehicles. Deemed to be one of the most promising EV companies in China, NIO has raised a total of 15 billion yuan in previous funding rounds from over 50 investors including Tencent and Baidu. As Huxiu reported earlier, in response to the speculations over the huge losses, William Li pointed out that the word “loss” might be misused since the company is still at the investment stage.