CATL vice chairman to donate $138 million worth of stock to Fudan University

CATL vice chairman Li Ping, a Fudan University alumnus, is donating to establish a research fund.

Li's stake in CATL will be reduced from 4.58 percent to 4.48 percent.

CATL (SHE: 300750) vice chairman Li Ping and his wife will donate RMB 1 billion yuan ($138 million) worth of stock to Shanghai-based Fudan University to support research at their joint alma mater.

The couple has signed a donation agreement with Fudan University and plans to donate 4.05 million shares of CATL's unrestricted stock to the university, according to an exchange announcement by the battery giant today.

Based on CATL's closing price of RMB 248.27 per share on Friday, the donation is worth RMB 1 billion.

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The donation will be used to establish the Xue Min Natural Science Research Fund of Fudan University, according to CATL's announcement.

Before the donation, Li held 4.58 percent of CATL's shares, or 201,510,277 shares. After the donation, his stake will be reduced to 4.48 percent.

Li enrolled in Fudan University's materials department in 1985, majoring in polymers, and his wife, Liao Mei, enrolled in the university's history department in 1986, according to an announcement by Fudan late last month.

The couple plans to make a one-time donation of RMB 1 billion yuan to support the construction of the Xue Min Institute of Advanced Studies at Fudan, according to an announcement by the university.

The institute is open to the world to recruit top international young scientists within five years of graduating with a doctorate and to support them in conducting research that is technologically revolutionary and has far-reaching impact, according to the announcement.

Li is a co-founder of CATL, while Liao, who studied at Fudan for a decade, was the first domestic PhD student supervised by the late historian Zhu Weizheng, according to the announcement from Fudan.

Earlier today, CATL said in a Hong Kong Stock Exchange announcement that it would raise as much as $4 billion in a Hong Kong listing, with trading set to begin on May 20.

($1 = RMB 7.2370)