ALIBABA Group Holding and Baidu are among the cornerstone investors in the Hong Kong initial public offering of Horizon Robotics, a Chinese provider of software and hardware used in autonomous driving systems, according to people familiar with the matter.
French shipping billionaire Rodolphe Saade’s CMA CGM and a Ningbo government fund are also cornerstone investors, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is not public. The four have agreed to subscribe for a total of US$220 million in shares, the people said.
Horizon Robotics, which has several high-profile backers including China’s BYD and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL), is looking to raise as much as US$800 million in the IPO, the people said, making it one of Hong Kong’s biggest listings this year. It is seeking a valuation of as much as US$6 billion, before including the funds raised in the IPO, the people added.
The company started gauging investor interest on Oct 11. It will start to take orders on Wednesday (Oct 16), the people said.
Deliberations are ongoing and details such as the size of the IPO could change, they said.
Representatives for Horizon Robotics declined to comment. Alibaba, Baidu, CMA and the Ningbo government did not respond to queries.
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Alibaba, Baidu and other Chinese tech firms have accelerated investment into cutting-edge industries that Beijing deems to be strategic, such as autonomous driving, chips and artificial intelligence. Baidu in particular is making a big bet on driverless cars and robotaxis, to complement a push into generative AI.
Founded in 2015, Horizon Robotics is controlled by Kai Yu, an AI scientist who used to work at Baidu and was instrumental in its push into autonomous driving. The company is heading to market years after it began considering an IPO. At US$800 million, it is also raising more than initially reported – a positive signal to investors who have seen IPOs dry up during the Chinese economic downturn.
Horizon Robotics and Volkswagen established their Carizon (Beijing) Technology joint venture in 2023 to “capture the future opportunities of customised driving automation solutions in China,” the company said in its prospectus.
Horizon Robotics recorded a loss of 5.1 billion yuan (S$941 million) in the first six months of 2024, compared with a loss of 1.9 billion yuan in the same period a year earlier as research costs grew, the prospectus shows. Revenue rose by 152 per cent to 935 million yuan in the first half of this year.
In 2022, the company received a strategic investment from another partner, Chery Automobile. In 2021, it raised about US$400 million from funds including investment managers Baillie Gifford and CPE, as well as battery maker CATL, taking the Series C funding round to US$700 million. It is also backed by Intel, among others. BLOOMBERG
