Chinese auto giant Nio follows Tesla's lead to take advantage of surging stock prices
Nio is the world's 7th largest automaker
Jim Chanos tells FOX Business’ Charlie Gasparino that he still has issues with Tesla’s balance sheet and financials even as he reduces his short position.
Chinese electric-car maker Nio Inc. is following U.S. rival Tesla Inc. by offering new shares to take advantage of its surging stock price.
The Shanghai-based Nio announced it will offer 60 million American depository shares that will raise up to $2.7 billion based on Thursday’s closing price. The company has the option to increase the size of the offering by an additional 9 million shares. An American depository share is a share of a non-U.S. company by a U.S. depository bank and available for U.S. investors to own.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NIO | NIO INC. | 4.33 | -0.34 | -7.39% |
| TSLA | TESLA INC. | 338.23 | -0.36 | -0.11% |
Nio’s stock price has soared 1,024% this year as money has poured into the electric-vehicle space, propelling the company’s market capitalization to $62 billion and making it the world’s seventh-largest automaker.
Nio plans to use the net proceeds from the offering for the research and development of new products and autonomous driving technologies, expanding its sales and marketing penetration and general corporate purposes.
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The offering comes as Nio tries to keep pace amid a flurry of share sales within the electric-vehicle space this week. Chinese rivals Xpeng Inc. and Li Auto Inc. recently their own stock offerings, raising $2.16 billion and $1.36 billion, respectively.
Industry leader Tesla on Tuesday announced a $5 billion new common stock offering, using the proceeds to help shore up its balance sheet. The stock offering was the third undertaken by Tesla this year, which has used a 667% spike in its share price to its advantage.
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Tesla’s soaring stock price, which has propelled its market cap to $594 billion, has been supported by an improving backdrop for the electric-vehicle market.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives believes global electric-vehicle demand could grow to as much as 10% of auto sales by 2025, up from its current 3%. He also sees 40% of Tesla’s demand coming from China as soon as 2022.
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“China remains a greenfield EV market opportunity as we believe overall EV sales can potentially double in the region over the next few years given the pent-up demand for EV vehicles across all price points,” he wrote.