By LU Keyan
EV maker Leap Motors performed a poor debut in HKEX on Thursday closing at HK$31.9 (US$4), lower than its IPO price of HK$41.
Leap is the fourth Chinese EV maker to go public in Hong Kong. Its predecessors Nio, Xpeng and Li Auto all fell on debut too.
“This is not the best time to take the company public,” said ZHU Jiangming, founder and CEO of Leap. “But I care more about the market, we are running a marathon.”
Founded in 2015, Leap has three models of between 150,000 yuan (US,000) to 300,000 yuan. Last year, Leap delivered 43,700 units, a 443.5 percent growth compared with 2020.
Leap’s major advantage is that all software and hardware are in-house. Leaps spent 1.4 billion yuan on R&D in three years, far less than its peers, who sank at least 3 billion yuan. Zhu said research is more about efficiency than squandering money.
Leap is yet to turn a profit, like other EV makers listed in HKEX. Over the past three years, its net loss widened from 810 million yuan to 2.63 billion yuan.
JING Hua, vice president of Leap, said sales and gross profit of the company in H1 had grown significantly. “As we keep expanding, the profit will only grow faster,” he said.
