Text | Car connoisseur comprehensive
Welcome to contribute | Please add WeChat shaoyanlin412
Recently, Sina Technology reported that a person familiar with the matter revealed that ZEEKR has now restarted its US IPO plan, raising up to $500 million. In response to this news, ZEEKR officially responded that it had filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and said that preparations were underway.
It is worth mentioning that the IPO plan of ZEEKR Automobile in the United States has been foreshadowed for a long time. As early as November last year, ZEEKR Automobile publicly submitted an IPO prospectus to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), planning to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock code "ZK". However, the official delay in announcing the key issuance range and issuance scale and other data has also led to many rumors in the market: due to weak market sentiment, ZEEKR Auto has temporarily shelved its US IPO plan, and will continue to observe the market situation and decide when to resume the listing plan.
At that time, in response to this news, ZEEKR officially responded that the company had publicly submitted a prospectus to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and various preparations were being carried out in an orderly manner.
In December last year, there was new news about the IPO plan of ZEEKR Motors in the United States. According to a person familiar with the matter, after assessing the needs of investors, ZEEKR has been looking for a suitable listing window. An initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S. is planned in February 2024, in the hope that investor interest will increase by then. Generally speaking, the New York Stock Exchange has relatively relaxed requirements for companies to go public, so some start-ups and large-scale enterprises choose to use this method to obtain the injection of social capital after the model matures, so as to promote the rapid development of enterprises. However, judging from the external environment last year, although the U.S. stock market maintained a rising momentum, with the rapid development of new energy vehicles, investors are also more cautious about the investment of electric vehicle companies.
As we all know, the desire to obtain a higher valuation has a certain relationship with its sales figures, profitability and smart technology. According to the data: ZEEKR is a new intelligent pure electric vehicle brand under Geely, released on April 15, 2021, jointly invested by Geely Automobile and Geely Holdings, with Li Shufu as the chairman of the company and An Conghui as CEO.
At present, there are four models on sale: ZEEKR 001, ZEEKR 009, ZEEKR X, and ZEEKR 007. In terms of sales, although Zeekr achieved annual sales of 118685 units last year, it achieved a year-on-year increase of 65%. However, like most of the new car-making forces, ZEEKR is also in a state of loss. According to the officially released prospectus, from 2021 to the first half of 2023, the net profit of Zeekr will be -4.514 billion yuan, -7.655 billion yuan and -3.871 billion yuan respectively, with a cumulative loss of 16.04 billion yuan in two and a half years.
The increase in losses may be one of the main reasons why ZEEKR wants to accelerate its IPO plan in the United States, after all, building a car requires a steady stream of capital investment. If ZEEKR can successfully go public in the United States, it will also provide it with sufficient financial support.
Moreover, as Geely Holdings, it also very much hopes that Zeekr Automobile can IPO, and Geely Automobile has been actively promoting the IPO of Zeekr since 2022. In October 2022, Geely disclosed the spin-off and listing plan of ZEEKR, and in December of the same year, Geely Automobile announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that ZEEKR Automobile submitted a draft registration statement for a possible initial public offering to the SEC on a confidential basis on December 7, New York time.
On March 21, Geely Automobile Holdings Co., Ltd. once again issued the latest announcement on the spin-off and listing of ZEEKR. According to the announcement, ZEEKR has filed an updated Revised Registration Statement No. 3 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on March 20, 2024 (New York time). This version contains the audited selected financial information of ZEEKR Group for the year ended December 31, 2023, which has been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP and is based on information currently available to ZEEKR Group as at the date of the updated registration statement. Officials pointed out that the offering of ZEEKR will be implemented after market conditions allow and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission declares the registration statement effective. At present, the number and amount of ADSs to be offered and sold in the offering have not yet been determined, and a separate announcement on the offering of ZEEKR will be made in due course.
At this stage, the competition in the new energy vehicle market tends to be white-hot, and the capital market also has a conservative attitude towards the valuation of the new energy vehicle industry. For IPO, the automotive industry is concerned that ZEEKR is imperative, after all, if you want to develop in the long run, you need to expand the scale. In other words, more money needs to be invested continuously. The biggest advantage brought by listing is access to financing channels and financial support, which is very important for ZEEKR Automobile.