(Source: CnEVPost)

Chinese electric vehicle company Xpeng Motors has received approval from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to list there, raising $1.1 billion in capital, the South China Morning Post reported Wednesday.

Xpeng's secondary listing in Hong Kong is being handled by JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, and Credit Suisse, the same investment banks responsible for the company's New York listing in August 2020, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Xpeng's listing in Hong Kong is a dual primary listing and the first case of a significant Chinese company in Hong Kong and the United States in three years, according to the report.

Unlike other Chinese companies with secondary listings in Hong Kong that cannot be accessed through the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect or Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect, Xpeng's secondary listing can meet the access conditions, facilitating A-share investors to invest and active stock transactions.

Previous reports said US-listed Nio, Li Auto, and Xpeng plan to list in Hong Kong as early as this year, with their combined fundraising totaling $5 billion.

Reuters reported in March that Nio, Li Auto, and Xpeng have hired investment banks to prepare for their Hong Kong listings.

Nio had contacted Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley to offer 5 percent of its total share capital in Hong Kong, the report said, citing sources who added that Nio could also go public in A-shares.

Xpeng had contacted Bank of America and Morgan Stanley, while Li Auto was working with Goldman Sachs and UBS, who expect to complete the IPO in the third quarter with an expected $1 billion to $2 billion in capital raised, the report said.

None of the three companies have responded positively to rumors of a secondary listing in Hong Kong, but Li Auto CEO Li Xiang said late last month that more money is better for the company because its rivals and new players such as Tesla, Xiaomi and Baidu, as well as traditional car companies, are very well funded.

Li said Li Auto doesn't mind getting its capital reserves in any kind of way, including financing from the secondary market, bank loans and issuing debt.