China-based electric vehicle maker Li Auto has filed for a $100m initial public offering that will give corporates Meituan Dianping, Shougang, ByteDance, InTime, Taiping, Ping An and Leo Group the chance to exit.
Founded as Chehejia and also known as CHJ Automotive and Lixiang, Li Auto develops and manufactures smart electric sports utility vehicles. It began large-scale production of its first vehicle in November 2019 and had shipped more than 10,000 by the end of last month.
The company made a $344m net loss in 2019 from $40.2m in revenue, though it has boosted those figures to $121m in revenue for the first quarter of this year, resulting in a $33m net loss over the same period.
The $100m figure is a placeholder amount, reports in January this year having suggested Li Auto would target a minimum of $500m in the offering. The proceeds will support research and development in addition to capital expenditures it expects to total $1.5bn over the next three years.
Li Auto’s last funding came at the start of this month when mobile services portal Meituan Dianping invested $500m as part of a $550m round also including Li Auto chairman and CEO Xiang Li and an entity known as Kevin Sunny Ltd, according to the IPO filing.
Pump and gardening equipment maker Leo Group invested $54m to lead a $120m series A round for the company in 2016. It added $151m in a 2017 round co-led by insurance firms China Taiping and Ping An and backed by asset manager China Merchants Wealth.
Shougang Fund, a vehicle for steel producer Shougang, co-led a $475m series B round for Li Auto in early 2018 with Matrix Partners China, investing alongside department store chain Intime, Source Code Capital, BlueRun Ventures, Minshi Hexun Capital and Fancheng Capital.
The company raised $530m at a valuation of about $2.9bn, in an August 2019 round led by Meituan Dianping CEO Wang Xing that included $30m from digital media company Bytedance and additional capital from Xiang Li, reportedly bringing its total funding to $1.45bn.
Xiang Li owns 25.1% of Li Auto’s shares through a vehicle called Amp Lee. Meituan Dianping holds 14.5% through an entity known as Inspired Elite Investments and a further 8.9% through a vehicle known as Zijin Global. Family holding company Rainbow Six owns 6.1%.
The IPO will take place on the Nasdaq Global market and Goldman Sachs (Asia), Morgan Stanley, UBS Securities, China International Capital Corporation, Tiger Brokers (NZ) and SNB Finance Holdings are the underwriters.
Photo courtesy of Li Auto Inc.
