Key Takeaways:
Chongqing Afari has applied to list in Hong Kong, reporting its revenue rose 40% in the first half of this year on rising NEV sales, as its gross margin fell into negative territory
The carmaker counts Geely as a major partner, and recently signed a deal to sell 3% of its Shanghai-listed stock to Mercedes-Benz at a 25% discount
A new Hong Kong IPO applicationfrom car and motorcycle maker Chongqing Afari Technology Co. Ltd. (601777.SH) is quite mysterious, built largely on the dream of one day becoming an AI technology giant. There's just one problem with the company's vision, namely, the fact that it has yet to generate any revenue from an AI business that it wants investors to believe is its most promising asset.
Afari's new listing application, first published by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Oct. 16 and updated last Friday, is chock full of references to AI, which has, admittedly, become a buzzword among just about any publicly listed company these days. But Afari takes the AI hype to a new level, mentioning it nearly 200 times in its listing document, including 49 references in discussion of its "AI + Mobility" business.
The company's revenue currently comes mostly from sales of cars and motorcycles, both traditional internal combustion and new energy vehicle (NEV) models, under the Livan and Maple brands. But those businesses are still relatively small, showing the company is having difficulty gaining traction in China's crowded car market.
The latest data from the China Passenger Car Association shows Livan was China's 29th best-selling car brand in September for NEVs, which currently account for about half of the market and make up half of Afari's own car sales. That puts the company ahead of a few big foreign names like BMW and Honda in terms of China NEV sales. But it's also well behind all of the major NEV brands, not to mention some lesser-known names like Arcfox, at 19th largest, and ...
