By Julie Zhu and Scott Murdoch
(Reuters) – China’s CATL, the world’s largest battery maker, is planning to raise at least $5 billion by listing global depositary receipts in Switzerland as early as May, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
The size of the deal could increase to $8 billion if financial market conditions improved before the deal is launched, the sources added.
The sources could not be named as the information had not yet been made public.
CATL, which is Contemporary Amperex Technology Co, declined to comment on the transaction.
The exact size and timing of the deal is subject to financial market conditions, the sources added.
At $5 billion, the deal will easily be the largest GDR by a Chinese company in Switzerland, according to Refinitiv data.
GDRs represent shares in a foreign company but are traded locally on an exchange.
News of the planned listing was first reported by IFR on Wednesday.
Nine Chinese companies raised $3.3 billion in 2022 in Switzerland, the data showed.
CATL, which supplies automakers including Tesla, Volkswagen, BMW and Nio, in June last year raised $6.7 billion in a private placement which was one of the world’s largest equity capital market transactions for 2022.
The company plans to use the proceeds raised in the Swiss GDR to fund its European expansion plans, especially the development of a plant in Hungary, one of the sources said.
CATL said in August it would build a 7.3 billion euro ($7.6 billion) battery plant in Hungary, Europe’s largest so far, as the world’s biggest electric vehicle battery maker gears up to meet growing demand from global automakers.
(Reporting by Julie Zhu and Scott Murdoch, additional reporting Zhang Yan in Shanghai; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
