On the evening of May 10, Beijing time, ZEEKR was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange with the stock code "ZK". Due to the oversubscription, ZEEKR expanded the size of the IPO, issuing a total of 21 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs, each ADS corresponds to 10 ordinary shares) at a price of US$21 per share, raising approximately US$441 million, and if the underwriters exercise their over-allotment rights, the issuance size will be further expanded to 24.15 million ADSs, raising approximately US$507 million.
The underwriters of this offering mainly include 12 well-known institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, and CICC.
According to the official disclosure, the funds raised from the listing of ZEEKR will be mainly used for R&D, products, and channels, adhere to direct sales, and adhere to the self-built energy supplement system. Approximately 45% of this will be used for the development of more advanced BEV technologies and the expansion of the product portfolio, approximately 45% will be used for sales, marketing and expansion of the service and charging network, and approximately 10% will be used for general corporate purposes, including working capital needs, to support business operations.
The company's opening price was $26 per share, and the stock price rose all the way after the start of trading, as of press time, it was $29 per share, up more than 38% compared with the issue price of $21, with a market value of $7.078 billion, and finally closed at $28.26 on the first day of listing, with the latest market value of $6.898 billion (about 49.85 billion yuan), close to Xpeng's $7.3 billion. However, compared with NIO's $10.636 billion and ideal's $28.318 billion, there is still a big gap.
However, the IPO valuation is at a nearly 50% discount to the valuation of the previous funding round in February 2023, when Zeekr was valued at $13 billion, so for Zeekr, many commentators have called it a bloody listing.
However, judging from the enthusiasm of international capital for ZEEKR, the IPO was extremely successful, not only refreshing the record of the fastest listing in the history of new energy vehicles, but also taking only 37 months from the release of the ZEEKR brand to the successful IPO. In comparison, Tesla took seven years, and Xpeng, Ideal, and NIO used six, five, and four years, respectively.
It can be said that ZEEKR was born with a golden spoon, and the initial investor is supported by excellent industrial capital and well-known institutions such as CATL, Intel and Intel. Although it was listed at a discount this time, old shareholders such as CATL continued to subscribe firmly.
However, another indicator is even more embarrassing, ZEEKR's IPO is the largest IPO of a Chinese company in the United States since Didi raised $4.4 billion in 2021.
Compared with the $441 million raised by ZEEKR, the scale has shrunk by 90%, and in the past four years, the temperature of China and the United States in the capital market has changed greatly, and ZEEKR's feelings can be said to be a witness to the warmth and coldness of Chinese and American capital.
An Conghui exchanged listing commemorative gifts with the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange on behalf of ZEEKR
Signature of the commemorative book of the listing
Trading floor
Two days before the bell rang, on May 8, U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo claimed that the U.S. could take "extreme action" to ban or impose restrictions on the import of Chinese connected cars. Reuters said in a report that this is the first time that the United States may introduce a ban since U.S. President Joe Biden announced an investigation into China's connected cars in February.
On Feb. 29, Biden ordered an investigation into Chinese-made connected cars, citing "potential national security risks." The U.S. Department of Commerce will solicit comments on the so-called "potential risks" of connected cars in China within 60 days.
Raimondo told Reuters on May 8 that the Commerce Department was reviewing public comments submitted by April 30 and that "we have to digest all the data and then decide what we want to do."
However, the listing of ZEEKR has brought a wave of warmth to the market.
As for Geely and Li Shufu, after the listing of ZEEKR, Li Shufu's listed companies have reached 9: Geely Automobile, Volvo, Polestar, ECARX, Qianjiang Motorcycle, Hanma Technology, Lifan Technology, and Lotus.
Li Shufu, who did not appear at the Beijing Auto Show, is already a well-deserved auto giant in the Chinese market.
At the beginning of this year, An Conghui said at a media conference in Beijing, "Geely's goal is to become a Volkswagen group in the new energy era." ”
With the launch of ZEEKR, this goal can be said to have gone further.
In addition, in May, with China's GDP growth of 5.3% in the first quarter, Wall Street capital re-examined Chinese concept stocks, and capital repatriation can be said to be the golden time for Chinese companies to IPO.
According to data from the ZEEKR prospectus, ZEEKR's car sales in 2023 will be $4.78 billion, with a total revenue of $7.28 billion, and a loss of $1.16 billion in the same period. Affected by multiple rounds of price wars this year, ZEEKR's profit in the first quarter may decline.
It can be said that the possibility of ZEEKR achieving profitability this year and next year is very small.
The listing at this time is conducive to further opening up the overseas market of ZEEKR after the Beijing Auto Show.
Sea
ZEEKR has formulated the development strategy of "one vertical and one horizontal globalization", vertically strengthened the vertical integration of the industrial chain, horizontally strengthened ecological synergy, and laid out the world's only "three 800" ultra-fast charging full ecological solutions, including 800-volt vehicles, 800-volt electricity (power batteries), and 800-volt networks (energy replenishment networks).
Its model design fully considers the industry standards and user needs of major markets around the world, and the vast architecture meets the most stringent five-star safety standards in China, the United States, Europe and other countries around the world, and ZEEKR 001 and ZEEKR X have obtained the safety certification of the European Union and the United Nations, and are the first to start sales and delivery in developed countries in Europe.
In 2024, ZEEKR will not only enter the luxury market of 8 European countries, but also enter the markets of 50 countries and regions such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, South America, and Australia, and the globalization strategy will be fully accelerated. As of the end of April, ZEEKR has built nearly 380 stores around the world.
As Zeekr, it is also facing competition from internal resources such as Polestar, Volvo, Galaxy, and Tesla, as well as a large-scale attack by NIO, Xiaomi, and Huawei.
Geely's global resources can help ZEEKR quickly connect with overseas markets.
Going to sea is a means for ZEEKR to get rid of involution.
Since its establishment more than three years ago, ZEEKR has launched five new models: hunting coupe ZEEKR 001, high-performance version of pure electric hunting supercar ZEEKR 001 FR, pure electric luxury MPV ZEEKR 009, four-seat ultra-luxury flagship MPV ZEEKR 009 Guanghui, SUV ZEEKR X, pure electric luxury sedan ZEEKR 007, and the family full-scene large five-seat ZEEKR MIX, which has just made its world debut at the Beijing Auto Show. In 2024, ZEEKR will also launch a new medium and large electric SUV.
As of the end of April 2024, ZEEKR has delivered more than 240,000 vehicles, and from January to April this year, a total of nearly 50,000 units have been delivered, more than doubling year-on-year.
In 2023, ZEEKR's total revenue will be about 51.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 62%, and the net cash flow from operating activities will be 2.28 billion yuan.
ZEEKR's revenue consists of a diversified revenue structure composed of vehicle sales, three-electric business, R&D and other services.
This kind of diversified revenue is a major feature that distinguishes ZEEKR from other new car brands, and a large part of it comes from intellectual property rights.
According to data, in the first half of this year, the revenue outside of ZEEKR accounted for 38% of the total revenue, including the intellectual property income shared by SEA's vast architecture to other vehicle companies. Brands currently equipped with this architecture include Smart, Geely Galaxy, and Jiyue, which is jointly launched by Geely and Baidu.
Another thing that makes the capital market optimistic about ZEEKR is that in 2021, the first year of the release of the ZEEKR brand, the gross profit margin of ZEEKR vehicles will be positive, reaching 15% in 2023, an increase of 10.3 percentage points year-on-year from 4.7% in 2022.
This is also the reason why we are optimistic about ZEEKR for a long time.
At present, ZEEKR's losses mainly come from its investment in R&D, with a cumulative investment of nearly 17 billion yuan in R&D in the past three years.
Among the technical advantages released by ZEEKR, there are the following statements:
In terms of technological innovation, ZEEKR has launched a number of black technologies including four-motor distributed electric drive, ZVC four-wheel torque vectoring technology and satellite communication technology in global mass production, and has also cooperated with Mobileye to develop advanced assisted driving systems to meet the needs of intelligent driving in the global market.
Horizontally, ZEEKR has strengthened ecological synergy and laid out the world's only "three 800" ultra-fast charging full ecological solutions, including 800-volt vehicles, 800-volt electricity (power batteries), and 800-volt networks (energy replenishment networks).
At present, ZEEKR has become the car company with the largest number of mass-produced 800-volt models in the world, including the new ZEEKR 001, ZEEKR 001 FR, ZEEKR 009 Guanghui, ZEEKR 007, ZEEKR MIX and other models. As of the end of April, the number of ultra-fast charging piles exceeded 2,500+, ranking first in the industry and becoming the global leader in ultra-fast charging.
Regarding the drag on profitability from the continuous huge R&D investment, An Conghui previously said, "Geely Holding Group's multi-brand strategic advantages can achieve manufacturing synergy and maximize production capacity; In addition, thanks to the platform strategy of Haohan Architecture, brands can form a large-scale effect through joint procurement, and the manufacturing cost will also be advantageous. ”
An Conghui delivered a speech at the listing ceremony of ZEEKR on the New York Stock Exchange
Of course, Geely is a domestic car company that will have more children and fight to the extreme, and how to coordinate this advantage and internal competition is a problem that An Conghui and Geely Group boss Li Shufu need to consider in the future.
For ZEEKR, its first goal at the moment is to achieve the goal of selling 650,000 units in 2025 after its launch.