Tianqi Lithium, a major component supplier of electric vehicle batteries from China, has set the price for its IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange. At the offered price, Tianqi will raise around US$ 1.7 billion which is the largest listing of shares in Hong Kong so far in 2022. This share offering is the first offering with a value of more than US$ 1 billion in Hong Kong this year.
This IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange is a secondary listing for Tianqi Lithium. Previously, the company, based in Chengdu, had traded its shares on the Shenzhen stock exchange.
Overall, the value of IPOs in Hong Kong during the first half of this year fell by more than 90% from the previous year. The financial center has been hit harder by the global economic turmoil.
Tianqi Lithium offered 164 million shares at a price of HK$ 82 equivalent to US$ 10.45 per share. Tianqi’s investors include LG Chem and China Aviation Lithium Battery Co, a supplier of electric vehicle batteries to Xpeng and Geely.
“Supply exceeds demand in the lithium industry in the last two decades. But that dynamic reversed in 2021 with the popularity of electric vehicles,” said Jiang Weiping, chairman of Tianqi Lithium, at a press conference last week, quoted by the Financial Times, Thursday (7/7).
Tianqi’s IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange is part of the company’s latest fundraiser to strengthen its position in the burgeoning electric vehicle industry. The Chengdu-based company raised 735 million yuan ($110 million) in an initial public offering in Shenzhen in 2010.
