(Yicai) Feb. 12 -- Contemporary Amperex Technology applied for a secondary listing of shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday, less than two months after the world’s biggest electric car battery maker first announced its intention to do so. While the amount to be raised was not mentioned, the Chinese firm said most of the proceeds will go towards building a new factory in Hungary.

The listing is being sponsored by China International Capital, China Securities International, JP Morgan Securities and Merrill Lynch, according to the prospectus released yesterday. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS have also been engaged as global co-ordinators.

The funds raised will mainly finance the construction of phases one and two of CATL’s factory in Hungary, which is expected to cost around EUR4.9 billion (USD5 billion), the Ningde-based company said. The total cost of the plant, which is the firm’s second in Europe, is around EUR7.3 billion (USD7.6 billion).

Construction has already started on the Hungarian plant and as of Dec. 31, EUR700 million (USD726 million) had been invested, it said.

CATL has invested a lot of money in recent years to expand its overseas production capacity in order to better meet growing demand from its European car clients. It already has a factory in Germany that started operations in 2023. And in December last year, the company linked arms with Dutch auto giant Stellantis to invest EUR4 billion to build its third European plant in Spain.

CATL was the largest battery manufacturer in the world last year for the eighth year running with a battery installation capacity of 339.3 gigawatt-hours, accounting for 38 percent of global market share, according to data from South Korean market research firm SNE Research.

CATL went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in June 2018. Its share price [SHE:300750] closed up 1.4 percent at CNY255.30 (USD35) today, giving the firm a market valuation of CNY1.1 trillion (USD150.5 billion).

Editor: Kim Taylor