CATL's debut a sign that Hong Kong's IPO market is roaring back
Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) made a splash with its stock debut in Hong Kong this week by jumping more than 16 per cent.
Despite it being blacklisted by the US Defence Department, probed by Congress and caught in the middle of a worldwide trade war, investors could not hold off their enthusiasm for a firm that supplies international carmakers such as Tesla, Mercedes and Volkswagen.
Interestingly, the offering under a US regulation meant American investors were barred from taking part in the IPO, thus being left out of a bonanza that raised US$5.24 billion for the company based in Ningde, Fujian province.
CATL's debut is the world's biggest listing so far this year, and propelled Hong Kong back to the top spot in global equities fundraising.
Investors large and small, retail and institutional, were enticed by the allure of a firm at the global forefront of electric vehicle (EV) technology.
CATL projects that half of all new trucks sold in China will be electric-powered by 2028, compared with 14 per cent of trucks sold domestically that were either plug-in hybrids, fully electric or hydrogen-powered, in the first quarter of this year.
CATL takes up about 37 per cent of the world's EV and energy storage battery market, though it derives 70 per cent of revenue from domestic sales.
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