The Chinese electric vehicle sector has begun to tap offshore markets for more funding, with shares in EV maker Zeekr gaining 34 per cent on Friday in the biggest IPO in the US by a Chinese company since 2021.
In a sign of improving investor sentiment towards Chinese-linked stocks, the Hangzhou-based premium car brand, carved out of China’s privately held Geely group, raised US$441 million ($733.4m) in New York from the sale of 21 million American depositary shares. They were priced at the top of its range of US$18 to US$21 and closed at US$28.26.
Zeekr debuted in the face of new trade barriers set to be imposed by the US and Europe on China-made cleantech. The Biden administration is expected to raise tariffs on Chinese EV imports from 25 per cent to 100 per cent on Tuesday. The European Commission is investigating electric car imports from China and is widely expected to raise tariffs in the coming months.
Investor appetite for Chinese cleantech companies will be tested again soon. Horizon Robotics, a Beijing-based autonomous driving chip design group that formed a partnership with Volkswagen in 2022, and its rival Black Sesame Technologies, both filed prospectuses with the Hong Kong stock exchange earlier this year. CATL, the world’s largest maker of EV batteries, is slowly moving forward on a share sale in Hong Kong, with a stated aim of bringing in its customers as stakeholders.
The outlook for Chinese automakers in Europe and the US is highly uncertain. Officials in Washington and Brussels are stuck between needing more Chinese technology to meet their climate change goals while also wanting to block it on the grounds of national and economic security.