The company behind China’s home-grown range of armed drones is to seek a public listing in a sign of new openness to private capital in the country’s secretive defence industry.
Nanyang Technology, a little-known and mostly inactive company already listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, quietly moved last summer to acquire the unit that makes the Caihong (Rainbow) series of drones from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), according to two people briefed on the plans.
Once the acquisition is complete, Nanyang will change its name and allow investors to pick up shares in what amounts to a backdoor public offering. The new name for the drone maker has not yet been publicly announced.