Lithium Battery Manufacturer CALB to Apply for Hong Kong IPO
China Aviation Lithium Battery Technology (CALB) plans to file for an initial public offering in Hong Kong as early as this week, which may raise as much as $1.5 billion, and is expected to become the largest IPO in Hong Kong so far this year, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
According to inside sources, the Jiangsu-based electric vehicle battery maker is working with Huatai Securities Co. on the listing.
Founded in 2007, CALB specializes in the R&D, production, sales and market application of lithium batteries & battery materials, BMS, energy storage batteries and related integrated products.
The company has established production bases in eight major cities, including Changzhou, Luoyang, Xiamen, Wuhan, Chengdu, Hefei. Guangzhou and Jiangmen. Meanwhile, the CALB Research Institute, which is operated as a nationally recognized enterprise technology center, aims to study and transform key technologies involved in the generation of battery power into actual application and to create a new energy technology innovation platform with global influence.
According to data released by the China Automotive Battery Innovation Alliance last year, CALB installed 1.09 GWh of batteries in China in November, ranking third with a 5.2% market share, while Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) ranked first with a 55% share and Chinese EV brand BYD ranked second with 16.6%.
At the end of November last year, CALB said its capacity would exceed 500 GWh by 2025, up from 300 GWh announced in June. The company expects to achieve 1,000 GWh of capacity by 2030.
SEE ALSO: CATL and EVE to Mass Produce Tesla-Designed 4680 Battery in 2022
On July 21 last year, CATL announced that it had formally sued CALB for patent infringement, claiming that the latter party was infringing on batteries that had already been installed in tens of thousands of vehicles. However, CALB said that the products it provides to its customers have undergone a thorough risk investigation by a professional intellectual property team and believes that its products do not infringe on the intellectual property rights of others.
