CATL taps HK exchange for US$5bn as overseas plans widen

Chinese battery giant CATL has raised HK$39.2bn (US$5bn) through its latest Hong Kong placement, selling almost 62.4 million shares at HK$628.20 apiece for a 7% discount against its previous closing price. The deal—2026’s largest on the Hong Kong exchange—attracted orders from more than 150 institutions, including hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds, and existing shareholders, with the book covered within approximately an hour of launch.

The fundraising comes on the heels of a first-quarter net profit of CN¥20.74bn (US$3bn), a 48.5% leap year-over-year, and comes less than a year after CATL’s May 2025 Hong Kong listing raised approximately US$4.6bn, and was the world’s largest share offering of that year. In the intervening time the company’s Hong Kong-listed shares have risen roughly 157% from the HK$263 listing price, providing the elevated valuation from which the new placement has been executed.

Raising in Hong Kong—and not in Shenzhen—allows CATL to accumulate hard currency that can be deployed directly against European land, labour, and equipment costs without requiring approval from China’s foreign exchange regulators for each transaction. This effectively strips away multiple layers of regulation that would otherwise slow its lofty global expansion plans.  It also smooths transactions with CATL’s overseas customer base; it can invoice BMW in euros and Tesla in dollars.

The 2025 listing proceeds were directed primarily toward the construction of CATL’s Hungary megafactory, its overseas flagship site which began limited production in early 2026. The plant has a planned capacity of 100 GWh, serving BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen. The 2026 placement is intended to sustain a broader second wave of expansion; among the plans are a €4.1bn (US$4.8bn) joint venture plant with Stellantis in Spain, targeting the affordable electric vehicle (EV) segment, and a US$4.4bn integrated nickel-to-battery investment in Indonesia alongside Toyota.

Proceeds from the placement will also support business development, research and development into frontier technologies including sodium-ion chemistry and ultra-fast-charging cell formats, and general working capital. Full-year results published in March beat market estimates, reinforcing the financial platform from which the company is financing what has become one of the most geographically ambitious capacity expansion programmes in the global battery industry.

CATL’s Shenzhen-listed shares have risen approximately 18.4% year-to-date, valuing the company at around US$293.9bn. The company dominates, and will almost certainly continue to dominate, the global EV battery market with a 39.2% share in 2025. Through January and February of 2026, it has expanded its share to 42.1%.