A Pony.ai AION robot taxi is displayed during the 21st Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition astatine the National Exhibition and Convention Center successful Shanghai connected April 23, 2025.
Wang Zhao | Afp | Getty Images
Autonomous driving firms Pony.ai and WeRide person received support from China's securities regulator for secondary listings successful Hong Kong, arsenic the companies look to rise funds and proceed their planetary expansion.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission announced Tuesday that some companies had filed to contented and database shares successful Hong Kong. Chinese companies seeking a overseas listing are required to record an exertion with the CSRC successful advance, giving the regulators last accidental connected whether the institution tin spell nationalist overseas.
Pony.ai and WeRide, which are already listed successful the United States, tin contented astir 102 cardinal caller shares each for their Hong Kong listings.
WeRide has tapped Morgan Stanley and China International Capital Corporation to enactment connected the listing, according to a Reuters report. Neither WeRide nor Pony.ai instantly responded to CNBC's enquiry connected their IPO plans.
Pony.ai CEO James Peng had told CNBC in July that the institution was exploring a Hong Kong listing. Hong Kong would connection "close proximity" to the company's location marketplace of China, which is thing that would involvement a batch of investors, Peng said.
Pony.ai and WeRide, some headquartered successful Guangzhou, are amongst a increasing question of Chinese companies seeking secondary listings successful Hong Kong, successful what has been a bounce-back twelvemonth for the city's IPO market.
The volition of the Chinese companies to dual database besides comes arsenic the autonomous conveyance companies grow their beingness to caller regions, including the Middle East, Europe and Asian countries specified arsenic Singapore, though they person yet to person afloat approvals to run their robotaxis successful astir of those regions.
In the U.S., some companies person partnered with Uber, with hopes of deploying their robotaxis connected the firm's ride-hailing level aft receiving approval. In China, they person already begun operating afloat autonomous robotaxis successful large cities, which tin beryllium hailed via their respective apps.
The companies person smaller autonomous conveyance fleets erstwhile compared to much established players specified arsenic Baidu's Apollo Go successful China and Alphabet's Waymo successful the U.S.
Pony.ai launched its IPO successful November with shares priced astatine $13 apiece — the banal has gained much than 60% since. WeRide debuted connected the Nasdaq, with the IPO priced astatine $15.50 a stock successful October 2024, and its banal has mislaid implicit 30% truthful far.
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