Latest news with #RobinZeng
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Toyota and Daimler Just Shocked the Trucking World with a $6.4B Power Play
Toyota (NYSE:TM) and Daimler Truck just sealed a $6.4 billion merger between their Japanese truck divisionsHino Motors and Mitsubishi Fusosetting the stage for a heavyweight in commercial vehicles that could finally give China's EV truck momentum a run for its money. The two companies have been circling this deal since May 2023, but an engine data scandal at Hino and a record $1.2 billion U.S. settlement delayed the closing. Now it's official. The new entity, which will sell over 200,000 units a year, is expected to go live by April 2026, with a planned listing in Japan. Toyota and Daimler Truck will each hold 25% of the holding company, but Toyota's voting rights will be capped at 19.9%. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 3 Warning Sign with TM. This merger could be a defensive playand possibly a hydrogen-powered counterattack. With battery-electric vehicles already dominating cars, Toyota sees trucking as the best shot to scale its hydrogen fuel cell bets. That's key, especially as CATL's Robin Zeng recently projected that half of all new trucks sold in China could be electric by 2028. The combined group, led by Mitsubishi Fuso CEO Karl Deppen, gives Japan a consolidated commercial vehicle force to compete on tech and scale, while leaving Isuzu to lead the other half of the domestic market. Jefferies puts the combined group's equity value at 5.6 billion, pegging it at 11x EBIT. There's more. As part of the deal, Toyota is buying Hino's Hamura plant for 150 billion ($1 billion)a site where it already builds the Hilux and Land Cruiser 250. This adds to the company's broader restructuring, including a planned $33 billion take-private of Toyota Industries. But the road ahead won't be smooth. Both Toyota and Daimler Truck have lost ground in market share, and U.S. tariffs haven't made life easier. Still, in a market shifting fast toward electrification and autonomy, the merger could help them stay in the fightespecially if hydrogen ends up playing a bigger role than expected. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Toyota and Daimler Just Shocked the Trucking World with a $6.4B Power Play
Toyota (NYSE:TM) and Daimler Truck just sealed a $6.4 billion merger between their Japanese truck divisionsHino Motors and Mitsubishi Fusosetting the stage for a heavyweight in commercial vehicles that could finally give China's EV truck momentum a run for its money. The two companies have been circling this deal since May 2023, but an engine data scandal at Hino and a record $1.2 billion U.S. settlement delayed the closing. Now it's official. The new entity, which will sell over 200,000 units a year, is expected to go live by April 2026, with a planned listing in Japan. Toyota and Daimler Truck will each hold 25% of the holding company, but Toyota's voting rights will be capped at 19.9%. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 3 Warning Sign with TM. This merger could be a defensive playand possibly a hydrogen-powered counterattack. With battery-electric vehicles already dominating cars, Toyota sees trucking as the best shot to scale its hydrogen fuel cell bets. That's key, especially as CATL's Robin Zeng recently projected that half of all new trucks sold in China could be electric by 2028. The combined group, led by Mitsubishi Fuso CEO Karl Deppen, gives Japan a consolidated commercial vehicle force to compete on tech and scale, while leaving Isuzu to lead the other half of the domestic market. Jefferies puts the combined group's equity value at 5.6 billion, pegging it at 11x EBIT. There's more. As part of the deal, Toyota is buying Hino's Hamura plant for 150 billion ($1 billion)a site where it already builds the Hilux and Land Cruiser 250. This adds to the company's broader restructuring, including a planned $33 billion take-private of Toyota Industries. But the road ahead won't be smooth. Both Toyota and Daimler Truck have lost ground in market share, and U.S. tariffs haven't made life easier. Still, in a market shifting fast toward electrification and autonomy, the merger could help them stay in the fightespecially if hydrogen ends up playing a bigger role than expected. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jamie Dimon Says JPMorgan Was Right to Do CATL Deal Despite Opposition
(Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. underwrote Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd.'s Hong Kong listing despite opposition from US lawmakers, given that Washington hasn't placed sanctions on the Chinese battery maker, Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said. Can Frank Gehry's 'Grand LA' Make Downtown Feel Like a Neighborhood? Chicago's O'Hare Airport Seeks Up to $4.3 Billion of Muni Debt NJ Transit Makes Deal With Engineers, Ending Three-Day Strike 'If we thought it was wrong, we wouldn't do it,' Dimon said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday at JPMorgan's Global China Summit in Shanghai. CATL, as the electric-vehicle battery maker is known, debuted its Hong Kong shares this week in the world's biggest listing of the year, raising $5.2 billion. 'The government did not sanction CATL,' Dimon said. 'There are people who didn't want us to do it for a bunch of reasons, and they may have somewhat legitimate reasons. But I think the government should decide what to do.' The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party had sent Dimon and Brian Moynihan, the CEO of fellow CATL underwriter Bank of America Corp., letters in April urging them to withdraw from the listing, citing the company's inclusion on a Pentagon blacklist alleging links to the Chinese military. CATL denies having military links. Just this week, founder and Chairman Robin Zeng told Bloomberg News that the 'accusation is completely groundless.' He also said Dimon wrote him several letters expressing his support for CATL. CATL's Hong Kong shares were down about 2% Thursday afternoon at around HK$330. That's significantly higher than the listing price of HK$263 following gains of more than 10% both Tuesday and Wednesday. The shares will be added to MSCI's standard and large cap gauges for China from June 2, the index provider said Wednesday. CATL also trades in Shenzhen, where it is up about 32% over the past 12 months. After CATL exercised the so-called greenshoe option, the overall proceeds of the Hong Kong listing rose from HK$35.7 billion ($4.6 billion) to HK$41 billion. That meant the maximum number of shares that could've been sold were sold. The Fujian-based battery maker has said the proceeds will help fund its expansion in Europe. 'We and other investment banks do a lot of due diligence around all the issues that people raise,' Dimon added. Why Apple Still Hasn't Cracked AI Inside the First Stargate AI Data Center Anthropic Is Trying to Win the AI Race Without Losing Its Soul Microsoft's CEO on How AI Will Remake Every Company, Including His Cartoon Network's Last Gasp ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Kuwait Times
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Kuwait Times
Battery giant CATL ends up over 16% on Hong Kong debut
HONG KONG: Chinese battery giant CATL ended its first day on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange more than 16 percent higher Tuesday, having raised US$4.6 billion in the world's biggest initial public offering this year. A global leader in the sector, CATL produces more than a third of all electric vehicle (EV) batteries sold worldwide. The firm has been buoyed by a rapid growth in China's domestic electric vehicle sector and it now works with major brands including Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen. However, it has also found itself in the crossfire of a superpower clash between Washington and Beijing for tech dominance, with Washington putting it on a blacklist naming it as a military company. The firm is already traded in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, and its plan for a secondary listing in Hong Kong was announced in December. In morning trading its Hong Kong shares hit a high of HK$311.40 (US$39.92), up 18.4 percent from its listing price of HK$263.00. The stock closed at HK$306.20. 'This listing signifies our deeper integration into the global capital markets and marks a new milestone in our mission to drive the global zero-carbon economy,' CATL's founder and chairman Robin Zeng said at the firm's listing ceremony on Tuesday. The raised funds could be used to accelerate its overseas expansion, including building its second European factory in Hungary after launching its first in Germany in January 2023.—AFP The strong interest in the company's shares come even as it comes under the spotlight in the United States. In a list issued in January by the US Defense Department, CATL was designated as a 'Chinese military company'. The US House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party highlighted this inclusion in letters to two Wall Street banks in April, urging them to withdraw from the IPO deal over its alleged links to the military. But the banks—JPMorgan and Bank of America—remain onboard. Beijing has denounced the list as 'suppression', while CATL denied engaging 'in any military related activities'. CATL also said in May filings it was 'proactively engaging' with the Pentagon to 'address the false designation'. Founded in 2011 in the eastern Chinese city of Ningde, the company has been given strong financial support from Beijing, which has sought in recent years to shore up domestic strength in certain strategic high-tech sectors. It has also weathered a fierce price war in China's expansive EV sector that has put smaller firms under huge pressure to compete while remaining financially viable. Tuesday's blockbuster listing is also a boon for Hong Kong's stock exchange, which is eager for the return of big-name Chinese listings as it looks to regain its crown as the world's top venue for IPOs. The Chinese finance hub saw a steady decline in new offerings after Beijing's regulatory crackdown starting in 2020 led some mainland mega-companies to put their plans on hold, while a strict security law added to the uncertainty for companies looking to list. Data from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange shows it is processing dozens of applications from Chinese companies this year. Analysts said Tuesday's IPO showcases Hong Kong's role as a place for Chinese companies to raise capital. 'We are also seeing a rising demand on portfolio diversification away from US dollar-denominated assets, underscored by the recent strength in the Hong Kong dollar,' Jason Lui, head of APAC equity and derivative strategy at BNP Paribas, told AFP. – AFP
RTÉ News
20-05-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
CATL's strong Hong Kong debut boosts outlook for Chinese companies' fundraising
Shares in CATL closed 16% higher on their Hong Kong debut today after the Chinese electric vehicle battery giant raised $4.6 billion in the world's largest listing this year, boosting prospects for equity sales by Chinese companies. CATL's strong debut came despite heightened market uncertainty, a Chinese economic slowdown, and the company being placed on a US Department of Defense list in January of companies accused of working with the Chinese military. With CATL saying in its prospectus that it was working with the US department to address the "false designation", global investors, including from the US, put in bids for multiple times the number of shares on offer. That augurs well for other Chinese companies looking to raise funds in Hong Kong, at a time when trade-related uncertainties, ballooning fiscal debt and weakened confidence about enduring US exceptionalism have weighed on US assets. The demand for CATL shares is also partly driven by an increasingly positive sentiment towards China among global investors that has emerged since the start of the year despite the Sino-US tariff war. CATL shares traded as high HK$311.40 each in Hong Kong after the firm sold shares at HK$263 each in the listing. The stock closed at HK$306.20, up 16.4% from the offer price and compared to a 1.5% surge in the main Hang Seng index. The company, which is also listed in Shenzhen, was the second most actively traded stock by turnover in Hong Kong, with 27.69 million shares worth HK$8.28 billion changing hands on its first day of trading. CATL had aimed to raise about $4 billion in the listing but increased the size following the strong demand from investors. A so-called "green shoe option" can still be exercised that would take the size of its fundraising to $5.3 billion. At that size, it would be the largest listing in Hong Kong since Kuaishou Technology raised $6.2 billion in 2021, according to LSEG data. The institutional tranche of the deal was oversubscribed 15.2 times, according to CATL's filings, while the retail portion was 151 times oversubscribed. "This listing means our wider integration into the global capital market and a new starting point for us to promote the global zero-carbon economy," CATL founder and Chairman Robin Zeng said at the listing ceremony. CATL has said that most of the funds raised would be used to build a factory in Hungary, part of its plan to make batteries in Europe for automakers such as BMW, Stellantis and Volkswagen. The deal means $7.73 billion has been raised in Hong Kong through initial public offerings and second listings so far in 2025, compared to $1.05 billion at the same time last year, according to LSEG data. Bonnie Chan, CEO of bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, said more than 40 firms listed in mainland China, known as A-share companies, were exploring Hong Kong listings. "One major advantage for these companies to pursue a listing in Hong Kong is the fact that it would open up an offshore fundraising platform to support their offshore expansion plan," she said. Wang Shuguang, a member of China International Capital Corp's management committee who oversees investment banking, said CATL's listing could help revive Hong Kong's capital markets. CICC was a sponsor of the CATL listing alongside JPMorgan, Bank of America and China Securities International. The bookbuilding for CATL's share sale started on May 12, the day the US and China announced a truce in the trade war that had roiled global financial markets since early April. The 90-day truce created some extra momentum for CATL after the offering had already been covered with pre-commitment orders when the deal launched last Monday, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the process. The tariffs pause prompted some global long-only investors who had previously not bid for CATL stock to place orders, said the sources, declining to be named as they were not authorised to speak about the details. CATL did not respond to a request for comment. The company has been extending its lead in the EV battery market, with a 38% share globally in 2024, up from 36% a year earlier, according to data from SNE Research. The sources said CATL's decision to restrict US onshore investors from buying its shares in the Hong Kong offering did not dent demand. Some US investors with offshore accounts could still participate and some did so, shrugging off the Sino-US trade tensions and the US defense department's designation of the company.
