Lixiang Automotive or Li Auto, a Chinese electric vehicle maker and Nio's major rival, today filed a prospectus with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a Nasdaq IPO that will raise up to $100 million with the stock symbol "LI".
Li Auto, along with Nio, Xpeng, and WM Motor, is one of the leading electric vehicle companies in China. Once Li Auto goes public in the U.S., it will be the second Chinese smart electric car firm traded in the U.S. after Nio.
Li Auto was founded on July 1, 2015, and is headquartered in Beijing, with its own manufacturing facility in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province.
Li Auto's founder, Li Xiang, is a serial entrepreneur who has founded the autohome.com.
Li Auto's first product, Li ONE, was released in October 2018 and offers 6 and 7 seater options.
It began mass production on November 20, 2019, with deliveries to customers beginning in December 2019. As of June 2020, the Li ONE has delivered more than 10,000 units.
Li Auto had no revenue in 2018 and achieved a revenue of 284 million yuan in 2019. In the first quarter of 2020, its revenue was 851.7 million yuan ($120 million).
Li Auto saw a net loss for 2018 and 2019 of 1.532 billion yuan and 2.438 billion yuan, respectively. Li Auto's net loss for the first quarter of 2020 was 77.11 million yuan, compared to a net loss of 358 million yuan for the same period last year.
As of the first quarter of 2020, Li Auto had cash and equivalents of 1.054 billion yuan ($148 million).
As of June 2020, Li Auto had 21 retail centers in 18 cities across China.
Currently, Li Auto has its own production qualification and has built its own factory in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, with a design capacity of 100,000 vehicles per year.
In August 2019, Li Auto announced the completion of a $530 million Series C round of financing, with a post-investment valuation of approximately $2.93 billion.
The funding round was funded by Meituan Dianping founder Wang Xing with $300 million and Li Auto's founder, Li Xiang, invested $100 million in the company, which was followed by Bright Capital.
This brings Li Auto's total funding to $1.575 billion.
In June 2020, Li Auto was rumored to have raised $550 million in series D funding, of which $500 million was led by Meituan Dianping and $30 million was raised from Li Xiang. The investment values the company at $4.05 billion.
According to the prospectus, Li Auto did not disclose Meituan Dianping's specific holdings but shows that in July 2020, Li Auto and the series D preferred stockholders Inspired Elite Investments Limited has entered into an investor rights agreement.
The Meituan Dianping shareholders were provided for certain special rights, including the appointment, removal, and replacement of a Directors' rights; change of control preference.
Prior to the IPO, Li Xiang held 25.1% of the shares and had 70.3% of the voting rights. Wang Xing held 23.5 percent with 9.3 percent of voting rights. Yanan Shen held 1.1 percent of shares and 0.4 percent of voting rights.
Rainbow Six Limited holds 6.1 percent of the shares and has 2.4 percent of the voting rights. Meituan Dianping's Inspired Elite stake is 14.5 percent and has 5.8 percent of voting rights.
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