Xiaomi grants biggest share option as smartphone maker boosts headcount, talent to tackle Chinese electric-vehicle market

Company awards 174.9 million shares to 4,931 employees, worth US$330 million at current market price, the biggest of 14 grants since 2019

Xiaomi is seeking to boost and retain R&D talent in pursuit of the EV market after recent acquisitions of car technology

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Xiaomi will be hoping to display its electric cars next to its cutting-edge smartphones in showrooms by 2024. Photo: Shutterstock Images

Published: 5:00pm, 24 Mar 2022

Xiaomi Corp, the world’s third-largest smartphone vendor, has announced its biggest stock award to employees since its listing in Hong Kong, after expanding its headcount by 51 per cent last year in a push to diversify into electric-car manufacturing.

The company awarded 174.9 million shares to 4,931 employees, the biggest of the 14 share option grants to date. The shares, valued at HK$2.6 billion (US$330.4 million) based on Wednesday’s closing price, are vested over 10 years until April 2032, it added.

The Beijing-based company has now awarded 677.8 million shares to its employees since the first grant in April 2019, or 60 per cent of the maximum of 1.12 billion shares. Some 14,608 people have participated in the programme, versus 15,363 a year ago, the company said.

“A strong outstanding team of talents is the solid foundation of future long-term growth,” Xiaomi said in an exchange filing on Thursday. It will continue to recruit and motivate excellent talent to strengthen its research and development and implement its business strategy, it added.

Lei Jun, founder, chairman and CEO, introduces MI MIX Alpha 5G concept smartphone in September 2019. Photo: Shutterstock

Xiaomi reported a 21 per cent jump in revenue in the fourth quarter to 85.6 billion yuan from a year earlier, according to its latest filing. Earnings, however, slumped more than 70 per cent because of higher costs, taxes and one-off items including impairment to its investments.