Leapmotor executives, including the CEO, plan to increase their holdings of the company's Hong Kong-traded shares by up to RMB 300 million ($42 million) over a six-month period.
Major shareholders of Leapmotor (HKG: 9863), the Stellantis NV-backed Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker, have pledged to increase their holdings in the company, after the CEO of Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) did so.
Leapmotor Chairman and CEO Zhu Jiangming and the company's shareholders, the Fu Liquan couple, plan to increase their holdings of Leapmotor's Hong Kong-traded shares by up to RMB 300 million ($42 million) or the equivalent in Hong Kong dollars within six months, according to a Hong Kong stock exchange announcement today.
The move is based on their strong confidence in Leapmotor's future development, in order to promote the company's sustainable, stable and healthy development and safeguard the interests of public investors, the announcement said.
Zhu, the Fu couple and the single largest shareholder group of the company to which they belong hold a total of 185,271,538 H shares and 128,517,839 domestic shares in the company, accounting for 23.47 percent of the total number of issued shares of Leapmotor, according to the announcement.
Leapmotor fell 3.74 percent to HK$19.54 in Hong Kong by the close of trading today, down about 43 percent for the year.
Earlier today, Xpeng (NYSE: XPEV) announced that its chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng purchased a total of 1 million shares of the company's Class A ordinary shares in the Hong Kong stock market on August 21-23.
Mr. He also purchased a total of 1,419,922 American Depositary Shares (ADSs) of Xpeng through Galaxy Dynasty Limited, which is wholly owned by Mr. him, at an average price of $7.02 per ADS.
Mr. He informed Xpeng that he planned to further increase his shareholding in the company, according to the announcement.
Xpeng's announcement sent its shares soaring, up 7 percent to HK$29.05 by the close of trading in Hong Kong. Xpeng's US-traded ADSs were up 6.7 percent to $7.48 by press time.
China's EV makers have generally seen their shares plunge so far this year, as macroeconomic challenges continue and competition in the sector intensifies.
Nio (NYSE: NIO) is down about 56 percent year-to-date in the US, while Li Auto (NASDAQ: LI) is down about 45 percent over the same period.
($1 = RMB 7.1231)
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