Electric vehicle (EV) maker WM Motor has kicked off its initial public offering (IPO) plan via the tech-focused Star Market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, as indicated by information disclosed by the Shanghai bureau of China Securities Regulatory Commission on Tuesday.
The Shanghai-based company has started to receive pre-listing tutoring, a necessary step for an IPO in China, from China Securities since September 30. Key shareholders, such as founder Shen Hui, and the executive management team will be trained in legal procedures, accounting knowledge, and corporate governance improvement related to the IPO.
WM Motor has just closed a Series D round in September, bagging RMB 10 billion (USD 1.5 billion) from investors including several government-backed funds and Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU), in one of the largest fundraising deals in China’s EV sector.
The firm’s main rivals, Tencent-backed Nio (NASDAQ: NIO), Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI), and Alibaba-backed Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) are all listed in the United States. Li Auto raised USD 1.1 billion after offering 95,000,000 American Depositary Shares in July this year, while Guangzhou-based Xpeng scored USD 1.5 billion in its IPO in August.
WM Motor launched its first model, the EX5, at the end of 2018, and the second, the EX6 Plus, in the fourth quarter of last year. The EV5 has turned to be the first single model released by a Chinese EV startup to exceed 30,000 vehicles in sales, according to the company’s website.