Leapmotor Gets Green Light for Hong Kong IPO
The official website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission showed on August 19 that it has granted approval for Leapmotor to issue a maximum of 290 million overseas listed foreign shares of 1 yuan ($0.15) each, all being common shares. After this is completed, the EV maker can be listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx).
As early as August 2021, when XPeng and Li Auto successfully listed in Hong Kong, Leapmotor had said that it would not rule out the possibility of seeking a Hong Kong IPO. On March 17, it submitted an application for listing to the HKEx, and the co-sponsors were CICC, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and CCB International.
Founded in 2015, Leapmotor mainly focuses on the middle and high-end mainstream new energy vehicle market, with prices ranging from 150,000 yuan ($22,240) to 300,000 yuan ($44,460). According to its disclosure in the prospectus, the company has realized independent R&D and manufacturing of all core systems and electronic components of intelligent electric vehicles, and has built an intelligent power system (Leapmotor Power), an automatic driving system (Leapmotor Pilot) and an intelligent cockpit system (Leapmotor OS).
Among all the parts of Leapmotor cars, except for the outsourcing of battery cells, interior and exterior decorations, and self-developed chassis and automotive electronics, all other components are self-researched and produced.
Leapmotor has launched four models so far: the pure electric coupe S01 in January 2019, the A00-level mini electric hatchback T03 in May 2020, the medium-sized intelligent pure electric SUV C11 at the end of September 2021, which is the first mass production model equipped with CTC battery technology, and the C01, which has received more than 83,000 orders.
The increase in sales has driven the firm’s revenue up. Its prospectus shows that from 2019 to 2021, the company’s total revenue was about 117 million yuan, 631 million yuan and 3.132 billion yuan respectively. However, losses are also increasing, from about 730 million yuan and 869 million yuan to about 2.868 billion yuan in those three years.
SEE ALSO: Leapmotor Responds to Car Owner Who Claims Collision Occurred With Assisted Driving
From January to July this year, Leapmotor delivered over 64,000 new cars. However, the long delivery cycle caused by its insufficient production capacity, as well as quality problems that are flooding the websites or crashing the auto shows are also warning the fast-expanding and cost-aware company.
