Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) one the world’s biggest maker of batteries for electric cars, has chosen banks for its sale of global depositary receipts in Switzerland to raise at least $5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Chinese giant is working with China International Capital Corp. and China Securities International on the share sale, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. CATL has also picked Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and UBS Group AG for the GDR sale, the people said.
The listing could happen as soon as this year, said one of the people. Deliberations are ongoing and details of the GDR sale could still change, they said.
Representatives for CICC, Goldman Sachs and UBS declined to comment, while CATL and China Securities didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
CATL would be joining other Chinese companies in tapping the European market as lingering geopolitical risks and regulatory woes reduce the appeal of other offshore markets like the US. At $5 billion, the GDR would be the biggest such issuance by a Chinese company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. IFR first reported the Swiss listing plans.
CATL accounts for the largest share of the global electric-vehicle battery market, according to data from Seoul-based SNE Research. It sold a total of 165.7 gigawatt-hours of batteries in the January-November 2022 period, almost three times as much as second-placed BYD Co., a Chinese automaker that also manufactures batteries.