BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese electric vehicle maker Xpeng Inc filed for a dual primary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
A dual primary listing is different from secondary listing and will allow qualified Chinese investors to invest in the company through the Stock Connect regime linking mainland Chinese and Hong Kong markets, according to the exchange’s rules.
U.S.-listed shares of the company rose more than 5% to $42.02 in premarket trading.
Reuters reported Xpeng’s Hong Kong listing plan in March, citing people familiar with the matter. Rival Nio Inc and Li Auto have similar plans, sources said.
Xpeng, which went public in New York last year, has a market capitalisation of $32 billion. It is based in the Chinese southern city of Guangzhou, and makes two sedan models and one sport-utility vehicle model at two domestic factories.
It sells mainly in China, the world’s biggest car market, where it competes with Tesla Inc and Nio.
Led by Chief Executive Officer He Xiaopeng, Xpeng is developing smart car technologies, such as autonomous driving functions, with an in-house team of engineers and plans two new car plants in China.
Xpeng’s backers include Alibaba Group and Xiaomi Corp.
Sales of new energy vehicle (NEV), including battery electric, plug-in hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, in China are expected to grow more than 40% annually for the next five years, a senior official at the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said last week.
(Reporting by Yilei Sun and Tony Munroe; Additional reporting by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Kim Coghill and Shinjini Ganguli)
