Longi seeks 20 billion yuan in largest GDR sale by Chinese firm

SOLAR power equipment company Longi Green Energy Technology is planning to raise about 20 billion yuan (S$3.7 billion) from a sale of global depository receipts in Switzerland, the largest such offering by a Chinese firm.

The Shanghai-listed company will use the proceeds for its solar module projects, according to a filing on Tuesday (Jun 20). The statement doesn’t provide details on the timeline of the offering. At US$2.8 billion, Longi’s Swiss GDR sale would be the biggest ever by a Chinese company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It would also be the world’s second-largest listing this year after Kenvue’s US$4.4 billion US initial public offering in May.

Chinese companies have been looking for alternatives to US listings amid geographical tensions between Beijing and Washington. They have raised about US$5.2 billion through GDR sales in Europe since the start of 2022 when the Shanghai-London Stock Connect cross-border listing programme was expanded to link Zurich and Frankfurt with Shanghai and Shenzhen.

China’s securities regulator last month rolled out new rules on GDR sales including a registration system and disclosures of the identities of the subscribers in the issuance. Approvals for new GDR applications were held up earlier this year on concerns that a substantial portion of the offerings were being taken up by Chinese investors who later converted the securities into shares in their home market to profit from persistent price gaps, Bloomberg News reported in March.

Founded in 2000, Longi has more than 60,000 employees and holds over 2,100 patents, its website shows. The company was among several Chinese manufacturers whose products were detained by US Customs in 2021, after the US banned some solar material from Xinjiang due to alleged human rights abuses. China’s foreign ministry has repeatedly denied claims of forced labour, labelling them as an attempt to undercut its businesses.

Longi has been working with China International Capital on the GDR offering, Bloomberg News reported last year. The Chinese regulator accepted its GDR listing application in January, while the Swiss exchange gave a conditional nod in February. BLOOMBERG