Wang Xing, CEO of Meituan, cashed in about HK$311 million last week in four consecutive sell-offs of Li Auto's Hong Kong-traded shares.
Wang Xing, co-founder and CEO of China's food delivery giant Meituan, cut his stake in Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) for several consecutive days, doing so again since the end of March, sparking much discussion.
Wang sold off Li Auto's Hong Kong-traded shares on four consecutive occasions between September 12 and September 15, trimming his holdings by a cumulative total of about 1.95 million shares, filings with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showed.
Each share traded at an average price of HK$157.84 - HK$160.51, and Wang cashed out about HK$311 million in total.
Following the move, Wang's stake in Li Auto dropped from 21.9 percent to 21.79 percent, or 384 million shares.
The transaction was personal to Wang and represented a very small portion of his total shareholding in Li Auto, and did not involve Meituan's shareholding, the automaker said in a response to local media outlet The Paper.
At the end of March this year, Wang reduced his holdings in Hong Kong-traded shares of Li Auto six times and three times in the carmaker's US-traded ADRs in half a month.
Wang cashed out about HK$310 million from the March dealings on Li Auto's Hong Kong shares and about $14.07 million on its ADRs, for a total of about HK$420 million.
It is worth noting that Wang also reduced his holdings in Li Auto on several occasions in late March last year.
On March 29, 2022 and March 30, 2022, Wang cashed out about HK$210 million by reducing his holdings in Li Auto's Hong Kong and US shares.
Wang was one of Li Auto's earliest backers, leading the carmaker's Series C funding round in 2019 with a personal contribution of up to $285 million.
In June 2020, Li Auto received $550 million in Series D funding, $500 million of which was led by Meituan.
When Li Auto went public in the US, Meituan subscribed $300 million and Wang personally subscribed $30 million.
Li Auto's Hong Kong-traded shares were down 2.59 percent to $150.50 at press time. The stock has been up 96 percent so far this year.
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