The world’s largest EV battery maker raises $5 billion in Hong Kong
April 27, 2026 – 10:31 am
The world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturer, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) priced its Hong Kong listing at HK$263 in May 2025. Its shares touched a high of HK$701 before the placement was announced. The deal builds on recent shareholder activity, including:
- A Sinopec unit sold US$770 million of CATL stock at HK$708 per share on April 22nd.
- A block trade in Shenzhen of 58 million A-shares at a 5.1% discount completed the same week, 1.1x oversubscribed.
CATL is now seeking to raise up to $5 billion through a share placement in Hong Kong, with bookbuilding underway and terms being communicated to investors. This would be the largest new share sale in Hong Kong in approximately four years, since Kuaishou Technology raised $6.2 billion in its 2021 initial public offering.
CATL completed a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in May 2025, raising around $4.6 billion at HK$263 per share. Since then, its Hong Kong-listed shares have surged approximately 160%, reaching an all-time high of HK$701 before the recent placement reports.
The new funding will primarily support the construction of a €7.3 billion battery plant in Hungary, part of CATL’s overseas manufacturing expansion to serve European automaker clients. CATL also supplies Tesla, Stellantis, BMW, Volkswagen, Xiaomi, and Nio. Its full-year 2025 net income was ¥72.2 billion ($10.6 billion), up 42.28% year-over-year, reported in March. First-quarter 2025 net profit rose 32.9% year-on-year to ¥14 billion, the fastest pace in nearly two years.
The week leading up to the placement launch witnessed substantial ancillary shareholder activity. On April 22nd, a Sinopec unit sold 8.5 million Hong Kong-listed CATL shares at HK$708 per share through an accelerated bookbuild managed by Goldman Sachs, raising approximately $770 million. The price represented a 3.8% discount to CATL’s closing price that day. Sinopec agreed to a 90-day lock-up on its remaining CATL stake.
Separately, a Shenzhen A-share block trade of 58 million shares (1.27% of CATL’s total share capital) was completed by Ningbo Lianhe Chuangxin at CNY410.34 per share, a 5.1% discount to the closing price, distributed across 30 institutional investors who are restricted from selling for six months. This deal drew bids from 50 institutions and was 1.1 times oversubscribed.
The context of strong secondary market demand for CATL shares at modest discounts underpins the current placement effort aimed at raising $5 billion. The discount offered to investors is a key pricing variable for this deal.