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LI Auto via Weibo
Chinese electric vehicle startup Li Auto set the price for its initial public offering on Wednesday night. The shares opened for trading on Thursday, and were up a lot. Confirm at least one thing: electric vehicle stocks are still hot.
Li Auto (ticker: LI) set the price of its public offering at $ 11.50 per ADR, short for US deposit receipt, a value used by foreign companies listed in the US That is above the expected range of $ 8 to $ 10.
The capital increase will bring about $ 1 billion to the company’s coffers.
The new security opened to trade a little before noon at $ 15.50 a share, an increase of 35%. The shares are trading at around $ 16.80 on Thursday at noon, 46% more than the IPO price and 9% more than initial trades.
The current price gives Li a market capitalization of approximately $ 14 billion. That is close to the market value of NIO (NIO). NIO, however, is a largest automobile producer.
NIO is delivering approximately twice as many vehicles as Li in recent months. In fact, Li’s shares are now trading at a price higher than NIO, and very close to Tesla (TSLA), when looking at the market value, including debt, for car delivered.
Investors these days are pricing electric vehicle manufacturers at roughly $ 1 million per delivery.
Li’s strong stock performance from the start places him firmly in the EV stock club. Electric Vehicle Actions Barron’s the tracks, including Tesla and NIO, as well as Nikola (NKLA) and Workhorse (WHKS), have averaged 240% a year to date, far better than the comparable returns of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 over the same span.
Li, like many others, has his own opinion on electric vehicles. The company makes extended-range electric cars by including a small motor that can be used to recharge batteries.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
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