(Yicai) May 8 -- Shares of Geely Automobile Holdings and Zeekr Intelligent Technology Holding jumped after the Chinese auto giant said it plans to take the electric vehicle unit private, just a year after it debuted on the US stock market.

Geely [HKG: 0175] closed 4.4 percent higher at HKD17.52 (USD2.25) a share in Hong Kong today. Zeekr [NYSE: ZK] ended 11.5 percent up at USD25.19 yesterday. The stock has gained 20 percent since the unit went public on May 10 last year, giving it a market capitalization of USD6.4 billion.

Geely will buy all of the Zeekr stock it does not already own for USD25.66 per American depositary share (one ADS equals 10 shares), representing a 13.6 percent premium over its closing price on May 6 and a 20 percent premium over its volume-weighted average price over the last 30 trading days, the Hangzhou-based company said yesterday. 

Geely, which owns around 66 percent of the shares, said Zeekr will become a wholly owned subsidiary and delist from the New York Stock Exchange following the transaction. Zeekr shareholders have the option to receive cash or exchange each ADS for 12.3 new Geely shares, based on Geely's average trading price of HKD16.14 over the past 30 trading days.

The move is aimed at creating a unified listing platform for Geely, enhancing the competitiveness of its passenger car business by fully integrating Zeekr's assets and resources, as well as helping Geely determine the unit's strategic direction to address global market and economic challenges, the company said.

“In line with the spirit of the Taizhou Declaration, the continued integration of Geely's automotive business gives rise to greater technological synergies, improves innovation capabilities, and increases profitability for all its holdings," said Chairman Li Shufu. "We will continue to maintain close communication and cooperation with American and global capital markets.”

The Taizhou Declaration, introduced by Li last September, is a strategy aimed at strengthening Geely's core competitiveness through resource integration. Since then, the company has merged several sub-brands, including Lynk & Co into Zeekr and Geome into Galaxy.

Zeekr will become the first Chinese firm to delist from the US stock market since America's trade conflict with China escalated at the start of this year.

The future of Chinese businesses listed in the United States has been a heated topic among investors after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent refused to rule out the possibility of delisting Chinese stocks from US bourses during an interview on Fox Business Network last month.

Zeekr's deliveries surged 87 percent to 222,123 cars last year, with its net loss narrowing 30 percent to CNY5.8 billion (USD793.3 million) after revenue jumped 47 percent to CNY75.9 billion (USD10.4 billion), according to its annual financial report. The net loss was CNY7.1 billion and revenue CNY113.9 billion (USD15.6 billion) when combined with Lynk & Co.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev