Clock’s ticking for China’s emerging electric car start-ups to raise capital as Nio goes public in the US
Competition intensifies as Beijing’s subsidy policy tightens and foreign car makers entice buyers away from domestic marques
Nio Inc, the start-up trying to take on Tesla in China, has slashed its fundraising size by nearly half as it became the first US’ listed Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker.
China’s accelerating EV industry is facing a number of challenges, not least increased competition, excess capacity, and limited time to come up with competitive products to fight against popular global marques being sold.
Backed by Chinese social media giant Tencent, Nio is offering 160 million American Depositary Shares at US$6.26, near the bottom of the indicative range of US$6.25 to US$8.25 per ADR.
On Wednesday, the stock closed 2 per cent higher at US$6.73 on its trading debut on the New York Stock Exchange.
At the offer price, the fundraising value stood at an even US$1 billion, down 44 per cent from the previous target of US$1.8 billion in its initial prospectus published on August 13.
But that is not so much to do with the company’s needing less cash, but more that investors have grown cautious, analysts say.
“An important issue is about the overall outlook of the Chinese EV sector,” said Angus Chan, a Shanghai-based analyst for Bocom International.