Xpeng, the China-based electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer backed by corporates Alibaba, UCar, Xiaomi, Duowan and Foxconn, is going public today in an initial public offering sized at approximately $1.5bn.
The IPO consists of 99.7 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs), each equating to two common shares, that are being issued on the New York Stock Exchange priced at $15.00 each.
The company had originally planned to issue 85 million ADSs priced between $11 and $13 each. The IPO price will give it a market capitalisation of about $21.3bn.
E-commerce firm Alibaba has expressed interest in buying $200m of shares in the offering and consumer electronics producer Xiaomi $50m, while Coatue Management and Qatar Investment Authority were considering $100m and $50m respectively. None have confirmed those purchases.
Xpeng produces smart EVs that utilise its proprietary autonomous driving technology and in-car operating system. It has released a sports utility vehicle and sports sedan model but made a $113m net loss in the first six months of this year from $142m in revenue.
The company will channel $750m of the proceeds into technology development and $450m into sales and marketing activities that will include the growth of its sales channels, while $300m is being reserved for general corporate purposes.
The IPO follows a $900m series C-plus round closed by Xpeng this month, according to a regulatory filing. Alibaba subsidiary Taobao China invested $215m in the round while sovereign wealth funds Qatar Investment Authority and Mubadala Investment put up $100m each.
Anatole Investment Management, Matrix Partners China, Tairen Alpha Fund, ZWC Partners, CloudAlpha, Aspex Management, Coatue Management, Hillhouse Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Neumann Capital and Shengyu Ventures were also among the participants.
Xpeng had previously raised $1.7bn since it was founded in 2015, including $400m in a November 2019 series C round featuring Xiaomi, online gaming community Duowan Entertainment, Matrix Partners China, Shunwei Capital and Markarian Investments.
Primavera Capital Group, Morningside Venture Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Eastern Bell Venture Capital, K11 Investment and Xpeng co-founder, chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng, had provided $585m in series B-plus funding in August 2018 at a $3.7bn valuation.
The company received $348m in series B funding seven months earlier, from Alibaba, manufacturing services firm Foxconn, IDG Capital, Yunfeng Capital, China International Capital Corporation, Morningside, GGV Capital, Matrix Partners China and Yuri Milner.
Chauffeur service UCar led a $324m round for Xpeng in 2017. Its earlier backers include Everbright Zhongying Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Kinzon Capital as well as Alibaba, GGV Capital, Morningside, IDG Capital, Matrix Partners and Shunwei Capital.
He Xiaopeng He will remain Xpeng’s largest shareholder post-IPO, with a 27.5% stake, followed by Alibaba (12.6%), IDG Capital (5.4%), company president Heng Xia (4.3%), Morningside (3.7%) and GGV Capital (3.3%).
Underwriters Credit Suisse Securities (USA), JP Morgan Securities, BofA Securities, ABCI Securities, BOCI Asia, Futu, Haitong International Securities and Tiger Brokers (NZ) have the 30-day option to buy almost 15 million additional shares, which could boost the size of the offering to $1.72bn.
Photo courtesy of Guangzhou Xiaopeng Motors Technology Company Ltd.
