China’s budding electric vehicle (EV) startups are increasingly turning toward private equity and venture capital for funding, amid tougher thresholds for initial public offerings (IPOs) on the Shanghai STAR Market, reports the South China Morning Post.
EV manufacturers Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group, Geely Automobile and WM Motor Technology have all been turned away in recent months from STAR Market, as the Nasdaq-like board tightened its definition of what passes as “technology” and “innovation” to qualify for a listing.
WM Motor, which is backed by internet giant Tencent, the search engine Baidu and China’s largest state-owned carmaker SAIC Motor, halted its STAR Market listing in April, even after it had completed its pre-listing tutorial program three months earlier.
Geely, the owner of Volvo Cars, withdrew its listing application in June, which would have raised RMB 20 billion ($3.1 billion) to finance its push to have 10 electric cars in its vehicles portfolio by 2025.
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