China’s Zeekr renews plans to raise up to $500 million in U.S. IPO, sources say By Reuters

By Scott Murdoch and Julie Zhu

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Zeekr, the premium electrical automobile (EV) model of Chinese language automaker Geely , has restarted stalled plans to boost as much as $500 million in a New York preliminary public providing (IPO), in line with two sources with direct data of the matter.

The corporate in November put itemizing plans to boost about $500 million on maintain due to a mismatch in valuation expectations between buyers and the corporate, Reuters reported then citing sources.

The deal was placed on ice additionally resulting from risky world monetary market circumstances on the time, as per the report.

Zeekr is now holding a non-deal roadshow with potential buyers forward of the IPO, the 2 sources advised Reuters.

The sources couldn’t be named discussing confidential info

“The corporate has made a public submitting to the SEC and is continuing with the preparatory work,” Zeekr mentioned in an announcement Wednesday in response to Reuters questions. The corporate filed its prospectus in November with U.S. regulators.

There have been six IPOs of Chinese language corporations that raised $46.9 million within the U.S through the first quarter of 2024, down from $428 million on the identical time final yr, in line with Dealogic knowledge. It was the quietest first quarter because the begin of 2017, the info confirmed.

The scale of Zeekr’s potential IPO of as much as $500 million is down from the corporate’s beforehand held targets of greater than $1 billion.

Zeekr is aiming to ship 230,000 vehicles in 2024, which is double its 2023 deliveries, an organization spokesperson mentioned in early January.

The agency was fashioned in 2021 by Geely, formally referred to as Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, to faucet rising Chinese language demand for premium EVs.

It raised $750 million from buyers in February final yr together with Amnon Shashua, the CEO of autonomous driving know-how firm Mobileye World (NASDAQ:), and Chinese language battery big CATL that valued the model at $13 billion.