Interest in self-driving cars has gone up a gear thanks to Tesla’s recent much-hyped robotaxi event. Chinese autonomous driving firm Horizon Robotics has chosen a good time to raise funds in a Hong Kong listing. If it reaches its target of raising up to $696mn, it would be the city’s largest initial public offering this year.
The company, backed by Intel and Volkswagen, will sell 1.36bn shares. This would make the listing bigger than China Resources Beverage. Before Horizon’s announcement, this soft drinks company had been on track to hold the city’s biggest new share sale this year after it started bookbuilding on Tuesday.
In Hong Kong, having multiple large listings in close succession has frequently meant more scattered funds from retail investors and less demand for companies that are not well-known household names. For Horizon, that should be less of an issue as it has already received significant interest from corporate investors. Cornerstone investors for the Horizon stock offering include the online business software unit of Alibaba Group and Chinese internet search giant Baidu.