WM Motor Submits IPO Application to HKEx

Chinese automaker WM Motor has submitted its application for a public listing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx), with Haitong International, CMB International and BOC International serving as joint sponsors.

The company’s cap table shows that founders Freeman Shen and his wife Wang Lei hold a total of 30.82% in the firm, Agile Property holds 6.46% and Baidu holds 5.96%.

WM Motor has received investments from Sequoia China, SAI, Baidu, Tencent, and more, with a cumulative financing scale of about 35 billion yuan ($5.23 billion). In March, the company completed a pre-IPO round of financing totaling about $596 million.

The prospectus reveals that the total revenue of WM Motor increased rapidly by 51.6% from 1.762 billion yuan ($263.4 million) in 2019 to 2.671 billion yuan in 2020, and further increased by 77.5% from 2020 to 4.742 billion yuan in 2021. The corresponding sales costs were 2.788 billion yuan, 3.835 billion yuan and 6.689 billion yuan.

According to the prospectus, as of December 31, 2021, WM Motor has delivered a total of 83,485 electric vehicles (EVs). Among them, 44,152 EVs were delivered in 2021, achieving year-on-year growth of 96.3%.

With the successive launch of WM Motor EX5, EX6, W6 and E.5, WM Motor’s products have covered the two mainstream categories of SUVs and sedans. WM Motor’s flagship sedan model M7 will reportedly be launched in the second half of 2022. Additionally, it will launch a brand-new SUV, sedan and MPV models based on the Caesar platform in 2023.

Prior to submitting its IPO application to the HKEx, WM Motor has built two intelligent manufacturing bases in Wenzhou and Huanggang, with a full production capacity of 250,000 vehicles per year. As of December 31, 2021, WM Motor has a sales and service network consisting of 621 physical stores.

SEE ALSO: WM Motor Founder Freeman Shen: No Fees for Autonomous Driving Yet

However, like other car companies, WM Motor is also facing problems with the ongoing chip shortage. On May 31, Freeman Shen issued a post on Weibo, saying that there has been another round of price increases for automobile chips recently, and according to the price increase, the chip cost of smart EVs has exceeded that of battery packs.