At 22:30 on February 23 (9:30 EST on February 23), Lotus Technology (**LOT) was listed on the NASDAQ** trading market in New York, USA, and the Lotus global smart factory in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone was simultaneously "cloud bell".
Lotus Technology is listed on NASDAQ, with a total number of shares of approximately 6With 800 million shares and a valuation of about US$6.8 billion, it is the largest company listed in the United States in Hubei Province to date, and the largest IPO of Chinese concept stocks listed in the United States since July 2021.
Lotus's listing in the United States, another U.S.-listed company in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone after ECARX, has ushered in a good start to the listing and financing of Wuhan enterprises, reflecting Hubei's strength in the field of electric vehicle manufacturing, and the steady improvement of the development quality of Hubei's automobile industry, which has become an excellent footnote to the bright theory of China's economy.
Carry the dream of brand revival.
Lotus Technology goes public in the United States.
Lotus was born in the United Kingdom in 1948, as one of the world's well-known luxury supercar brands, once on a par with Ferrari and Porsche. Geely Holding Group, led by Li Shufu, acquired Lotus in 2017, setting the road to a global revival for the luxury supercar brand.
In December 2020, Lotus Technology was registered and established in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, setting up the global headquarters of Lotus Technology to build ultra-high-end pure electric intelligent vehicles for the global market. According to the Vision 80 plan, we will accelerate the transition to electrification and intelligence.
At the end of 2021, Lotus Technology completed the Pre-A round of financing, with a valuation of 15 billion yuan, becoming the fastest "unicorn" in Wuhan that year.
In 2022, the Lotus Global Smart Factory was officially put into operation. In October of that year, Lotus's first all-electric smart supercar SUV, the Eletre, was officially launched and is being delivered to customers around the world. At the beginning of January 2024, Lotus's first all-electric supercar sedan, Emeya Fanhua, was officially launched, and the first owners will be delivered in March this year.
Located in Junshan New Town, the Lotus Technology Global Headquarters Intelligent Manufacturing Center will be built into the first-class chain management, global marketing, R&D and design center for Lotus intelligent pure electric living vehicles.
Lotus Technology seeks to go public, accelerating the pace of the Lotus brand's return to the global first-tier luxury brand camp.
In January 2023, Lotus entered into a definitive agreement with L Catterton Asia Acquisition Corp (LCAA), an offshore special purpose acquisition company, under which the combined company will retain Lotus Technology as the company name and its common stock will be traded on Nasdaq.
On February 8, 2024, on the eve of the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued a notice of filing for overseas issuance and listing to Lotus Technology. Since then, Lotus Technology has confirmed that Lotus Technology will ring the bell on February 23 to go public.
In the "second home of Geely".
Li Shufu "harvested" two U.S.-listed companies.
In the eyes of Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding Group, Wuhan is "Geely's second hometown" and a strategic fulcrum for Geely Group to base itself in Central China and focus on the world.
In 2017, ECARX, co-founded by Li Shufu and Shen Ziyu, settled in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone. As a result, Li Shufu, Geely Holding and China Chegu have formed an indissoluble bond.
In the six years since, Li Shufu has cultivated four "unicorns" in the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone: ECARX, SiEngine, Lotus and Meizu.
ECARX is a leading automotive technology company, focusing on in-vehicle chips, intelligent cockpits, big data and Internet of Vehicles cloud platforms, with branches and R&D centers in Wuhan, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Gothenburg, London, etc., and its intelligent cockpit products are installed in more than 3.7 million vehicles worldwide.
In December 2022, ECARX (**ECX, ECXWW) was listed on the NASDAQ, becoming the first U.S.-listed company in the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone and the first U.S.-listed company in Wuhan.
Fourteen months later, with the successful listing of Lotus Technology on the NASDAQ, Li Shufu included the second U.S.-listed company in the "bag". So far, half of Li Shufu's four "unicorns" in the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone have been listed overseas.
The chip unicorn bred in the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, SiEngine Technology, has successfully developed the first 7nm advanced process automotive-grade chip "Longying No. 1" in China and achieved mass production and installation. In September 2023, the first mass-produced model equipped with the "Dragon Eagle One", the Lynk & Co 08, was launched. By the end of last year, the shipment of "Longying No. 1" exceeded 200,000 pieces.
Favored by a number of VC PE and industrial capital, SiEngine successfully achieved three rounds of financing in 2022 with a valuation of over 7 billion, becoming a new unicorn in 2022.
On December 15, 2023, the National New Energy Vehicle Technology Innovation Center signed a strategic cooperation agreement with SiEngine Technology. Wang Kai, founder, director and CEO of SiEngine, revealed that the shipment volume of SiEngine's "Dragon Eagle No. 1" chip is expected to reach one million in 2024, and the IPO will be launched in due course when the sales volume and revenue increase rapidly.
In November 2023, Meizu Group announced the completion of Series A financing. This is the second financing completed by Meizu in 2023, with a cumulative financing of 2 billion yuan and a post-investment valuation of more than 10 billion yuan, becoming a new unicorn.
The predecessor of Xingji Meizu is Xingji Era, which was co-founded by Li Shufu and Shen Ziyu in 2021. In 2022, Xingji Times strategically invested in Meizu Technology, and in March last year, Xingji Times and Meizu merged to form Meizu Xingji, headquartered in Wuhan Economic Development Zone.
When will the IPO of SiEngine Technology and Meizu of Xingji? It's worth the wait.
Unicorns "run to China's car valley.
Who will be next?
On the map of China's automobile industry, China's car valley - Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone plays a pivotal role: it has brought together 9 vehicle enterprises, 13 vehicle factories, more than 1,200 auto parts enterprises, with an annual output of one million vehicles.
Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone firmly grasps the development trend of the automobile industry, writes the development on the banner of innovation, "changes lanes and accelerates" on the track of new energy and intelligent networked vehicles, builds an innovation ecology of new energy and intelligent networked vehicles, and provides fertile soil and water for cultivating "unicorns".
According to the relevant person in charge of Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, on the new track of new energy intelligent vehicles, since 2021, unicorn companies such as ECARX Technology, Lotus Technology, VOYAH Automobile, Xinqing Technology, and Meizu have been born in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, as well as "China's leading unicorns" such as Zhixin Technology and Dongfeng Yuexiang, as well as "potential unicorns" Huanyu Zhixing.
Why Wuhan Economic Development Zone? Li Shufu's words may explain the reason.
On November 30, 2023, the 2023 Meizu Autumn Unbounded Ecosystem Conference was held in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone.
Li Shufu said in an interview that Wuhan is a heroic city with a superior geographical location, a strong foundation, vigorous industrial innovation, and a world-class trillion-dollar automobile industry cluster is being formed here, providing valuable opportunities for the further development of entities including Geely Holding Group.
Du Ping, President of ECARX China, said that he was the same as Li Shufu.
ECARX is the first unicorn company cultivated in the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone and the first U.S.-listed company.
Talking about ECARX and Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, Du Ping, President of ECARX China, once said that the company's rapid growth is inseparable from the business environment in Wuhan and the vision and heritage of "China Car Valley". "The industrial cluster here allows us to find more human resources and industrial resources, and by integrating into the development process of Wuhan's big technology ecology, we can take root efficiently and grow rapidly. ”
Optimistic about the development prospects of Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, major industrial projects such as Brayton Management Headquarters and Production Base, Visteon Asia-Pacific Wuhan Technology Center, Effie China R&D Center, and International Intelligent Auto Parts Intelligent Manufacturing Base have come to ......In the words of a VC investor, to invest in the automotive industry chain, you must go to Wuhan and Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone.
The next stop for "unicorns" is IPOs.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Financial Work Bureau of Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, in August last year, Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone issued the "Several Support Policies for Accelerating the Listing of Enterprises in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone", and seven "hard-core" measures provided strong support for enterprises to impact IPOs. At present, there are 7 listed companies in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, 4 overseas (including Hong Kong) listed companies, and 15 ** listed companies. In addition, there will be 23 provincial-level listed reserve "golden seed" enterprises in the region from 2024 to 2025, an increase of 7 from last year, and the matrix of listed companies is expected to continue to expand.
In November 2022, VOYAH Automobile, a subsidiary of Dongfeng Motor, completed a series A strategic financing, with a financing amount of up to 45500 million yuan, with a market valuation of nearly 30 billion yuan, it has become another new energy vehicle "unicorn" in China Auto Valley after Lotus Technology.
In 2023, VOYAH will complete the "three years and three categories" product layout of SUVs, MPVs, and sedans, with sales exceeding 50,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 16 times. In 2024, VOYAH will go all out to achieve the new target of annual sales of 100,000 units, delivering 7,041 new vehicles in January, a year-on-year increase of 355%.
This also means that VOYAH has more favorable conditions for the next strategic financing.
Hubei** client correspondents: Li Jinyou, Zheng Qiyue, Li Jian, Liu Kai, Yang Haobin).
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