Chinese self-driving firm WeRide notches $4.21 billion valuation in US IPO

(Reuters) -Self-driving firm WeRide [WRD.O] notched a valuation of $4.21 billion after raising $120 million in its U.S. initial public offering (IPO) on Friday, becoming the latest Chinese company to capitalize on easing regulatory hurdles to list in New York.

The company sold 7.7 million American depositary shares in the offering at $15.50 a piece, the lower end of its targeted range of $15.50 to $18.50 per ADS.

It also raised around $320.5 million in a concurrent private placement.

WeRide expects to raise a total of $458.5 million from both the IPO and the private placement. The Chinese firm, known for autonomous taxis, vans, buses and street sweepers, is testing and conducting commercial pilots in 30 cities across seven countries.

The company will start trading on the Nasdaq later in the day.Self-driving technology is still in the experimental stages globally, with robotaxi companies facing significant technical and regulatory challenges. Even so, China has been more proactive in approving trials compared to the United States. The IPO follows the debut of Chinese EV maker Zeekr on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this year and comes at a critical moment for the market as it attempts to stage a meaningful rebound in 2024. The number of Chinese companies that have pursued stock market flotations in the United States in the past few years has dropped, after ride-hailing giant Didi Global was forced to delist its shares following a backlash from Chinese regulators. Beijing has since softened its stance and released a set of rules last year to revive such listings, after the U.S. accounting watchdog and China resolved a longstanding audit dispute in December 2022. Another autonomous driving firm Pony AI, backed by automaker Toyota (NYSE:TM) and with operations in China, filed for an IPO in the U.S. earlier this month. Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and China International Capital Corp were the lead underwriters of WeRide’s IPO.