On Friday (May 10th), Zeekr, a mid to high end brand under Geely Automobile Group, went public on the New York Stock Exchange, marking the largest IPO by a Chinese company in the United States in three years.

Zeekr issued 21 million American Depositary Shares with a range cap of $18 to $21, each representing 10 shares of the company's common stock. ADS began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 10th, with the stock code "ZK".

Zeekr stated that the company has granted underwriters an option to exercise within 30 days from the date of the final prospectus, to purchase up to 3.15 million additional American Depositary Shares at the IPO price.

If the underwriters do not exercise the over allocation of equity, the total amount of funds raised in this issuance is expected to be approximately 441 million US dollars; If the underwriters choose to exercise the excess rights in full, the issuance will increase to 24.15 million American depositary shares, accounting for approximately 9.1% of Zeekr's issued share capital, and the total amount of funds raised from the issuance is expected to be approximately $507.2 million.

Zeekr stated in its documents that Geely Automobile, autonomous driving technology company MobileyeGlobal, and CATL are interested in subscribing to stocks worth up to $349 million in this issuance. Among them, Geely Automobile will subscribe to ADSs of no more than 320 million US dollars. After going public, Geely will hold nearly half of Zeekr's voting rights.

Zeekr plans to use the raised funds mainly for developing pure electric vehicle technology, expanding product portfolio, sales and marketing, expanding the company's services and charging network, etc.

Zeekr's listing is the largest IPO of a Chinese company in the United States since Didi Chuxing's $4.4 billion IPO three years ago.Zeekr is the fourth new Chinese automaker to go public in the United States, after NIO, Ideal, and Xiaopeng Motors successively listed on the US stock market. Zeekr also set a record for the fastest listing of new energy vehicle companies. Zeekr was founded in April 2021, and it only took three years from its establishment to its listing. In contrast, Xiaopeng Automobile took six years, Ideal Automobile took five years, and NIO Automobile took four years.

On its first day of listing, Zeekr had a great start. On Friday, Zeekr closed at $28.26 per share, 35% higher than its offering price of $21, with a total market value of nearly $6.9 billion, similar to the market value of Xiaopeng, which was listed in 2020 ($7.3 billion).

However, the current valuation of Zeekr is still significantly lower than last year's valuation of nearly $13 billion, indicating a more cautious attitude towards electric vehicle companies in the market.

Nevertheless, the market is still quite optimistic about Zeekr. Prior to its official listing, Zeekr was rumored to have received oversubscription, which resulted in the subscription originally scheduled to end on Thursday ending one day earlier. It is reported that Zeekr ultimately received nearly five times the oversubscription.

The market's optimism about Zeekr is also reasonable.

Take a look at the performance over the past three years since its establishment. From 2021 to 2023, Zeekr's revenue steadily increased, reaching 6.5 billion yuan (RMB), 31.9 billion yuan, and 51.7 billion yuan respectively.

At the same time, Zeekr's losses have also increased year by year, but the growth rate has slowed down, with net losses of 4.514 billion yuan, 7.655 billion yuan, and 8.264 billion yuan respectively over the past three years. The increase in losses is mainly due to the annual increase in research and development investment. From 2021 to 2023, Zeekr's R&D investment was 3.16 billion yuan, 5.446 billion yuan, and 8.369 billion yuan, respectively. As a comparison, NIO's R&D investment in 2023 was 13.431 billion yuan, Li Automobile was 10.586 billion yuan, and Xpeng Automobile was 5.277 billion yuan.

Furthermore, it is worth noting that Zeekr's gross profit margin has also performed well among a group of pure electric vehicle companies. From 2021 to 2023, Zeekr's gross profit margin was 1.8%, 4.7%, and 15%, respectively. What is the level of 15%? It is second only to Tesla (18.2%) and Li (21.5%) among pure electric vehicle companies in the same period, and much higher than NIO's 9.5% and Xpeng's -1.6%.

According to Hong Kong accounting standards, Zeekr's loss in 2023 was 1.135 billion yuan, which is a significant improvement from the loss of 2.039 billion yuan in the same period last year. Therefore, Zeekr has also set a goal for himself to turn losses into profits this year. If implemented, Zeekr will become the fastest breaking even new force in car manufacturing.

In terms of sales, Zeekr has also achieved multiple excellent results. From 2021 to 2023, Zeekr delivered 6,000, 72,000, and 118,000 vehicles respectively. According to the latest official delivery data, Zeekr delivered a total of 16,089 units in April 2024, a year-on-year increase of 99% and a month on month increase of 24%, setting a new historical high. The delivery quantity from January to April this year recorded a year-on-year increase of 111%, consistently ranking first in sales of Chinese pure electric brands with a sales volume of over 200,000 yuan. It is reported that Zeekr's delivery target for this year is 230,000 vehicles, and if achieved, it will double compared to 2022.

Zeekr's current product portfolio mainly includes ZEEKR 001, ZEEKR 001FR, ZEEKR 009, and ZEEKR X, with a price range spanning from 200000 yuan to 800000 yuan.

In addition, Zeekr also frequently takes action in "going out to sea". Previously, Zeekr had already taken the lead in entering two European countries, Sweden and the Netherlands. This year, Zeekr plans to enter markets in eight more European countries, as well as 50 regional markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, South America, Australia, and other countries. In addition, Zeekr will also begin delivery in mainstream right-hand drive markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong and Macau.

In her speech at the listing ceremony on the New York Stock Exchange, An Conghui, CEO of Zeekr Intelligent Technology, President of Geely Holding Group, stated that Zeekr will take the above market as an opportunity to further upgrade its governance structure, achieve global compliance, transparent and sustainable development, and work with global users to create the ultimate experience of business life, bringing stable long-term value to investors.