CATL is the world’s largest electric vehicle battery maker and supplier to the likes of Tesla and Ford.
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China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the largest electric vehicle battery producer in the world, has filed for listing on Hong Kong’s stock exchange, potentially making it the largest IPO for the city in five years.
The size and timeline of the IPO and timeline were not revealed in the filing. However, Reuters reported that the deal is expected to raise at least $5 billion, citing sources familiar with the matter. That would mark Hong Kong’s largest IPO since Chinese TikTok rival Kuaishou’s $5.32 billion public offering in early 2021.
According to the filing made by the company, the Bank of America, China International Capital Corporation, China Securities International and JPMorgan Chase are joint sponsors for the listing.
The move to list in Hong Kong is expected to attract global long-term institutional investors, some of whom may be bound by policies that disallow them from buying shares of mainland China-based companies, said William Ma, chief investment officer and founder of GROW Investment Group, a China-based asset management company.
CATL is also listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange, boasting a market cap of 1.1 trillion yuan ($150.5 billion), according to data from LSEG. The company supplies batteries to big automakers like Tesla and Volkswagen.
“The timing is ideal as global investors are starting to find China’s markets trading at attractive valuations,” Ma told CNBC.
The listing will also help diversify the sector mix of Hong Kong-listed shares, which largely comprise Chinese internet companies and banks, he added.
Hong Kong saw a pickup in listing activities in 2024 after three consecutive years of declines in terms of deal values, according to data from Dealogic. The city’s bourse raised $10.65 billion across 63 deals last year, a jump of more than 80% from the $5.89 billion raised in 2023.
In January, the U.S. Department of Defense included CATL and Tencent on its list of “Chinese Military Companies,” which would prevent the department from procuring goods and services from those companies starting June 2026. However, the profit impact of the move is “negligible” because the companies do not derive significant revenues from the DoD, Macquarie’s analysts said in January note.
“We are proactively engaging with DoD to address the false designation,” CATL said in its filing. “We cannot guarantee that such attempts will be successful or that the relevant government agencies will not take any further actions.”
As of September, CATL operates 13 battery manufacturing bases across the world, according to information from the filing. The battery maker also mentioned it is in preparing its plants in Hungary as well as other projects in Indonesia. Its joint venture with automaker Stellantis to build a 4.1 billion euro ($4.2 billion) lithium iron phosphate battery plant in Spain is also under way.
CATL’s revenue for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 declined over 12% compared to the same period in 2023. However, the company expects its 2024 full-year net profit to increase between 11% to 20% from a year ago, according to a securities filing in January.
— CNBC’s Anniek Bao contributed to this report.
