CATL Surges 18% in Hong Kong’s Biggest 2025 IPO as EV Battery Demand Soars

China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Limited—better known as CATL—raised almost HK$35.7 billion (US$4.55 billion) in Hong Kong’s largest listing of 2025, then promptly popped 18 percent in early trading. The world’s top EV-battery maker already commands more than one-third of global cell sales, yet the fresh capital will fund new plants in Europe and accelerate R&D on ultra-fast-charging packs that promise 520 kilometers of range from a five-minute top-up. Investors shrugged off Washington’s claim that CATL aids China’s military, treating the label as geopolitical noise in a market racing toward electrification.

Beyond the headline spike, CATL’s float is a bellwether for Hong Kong itself. The exchange has struggled to attract mega-deals amid US-China trade friction and higher global rates, but CATL’s successful splash signals that climate-tech juggernauts can still find deep pools of capital there. With a trillion-yuan valuation on Shenzhen and 13 factories worldwide—including a new Hungarian site and a €4.3 billion joint plant with Stellantis in Spain—the company is cementing a dual-listing strategy that lets it tap both mainland and international wallets while hedging tariff risk.

Yet CATL’s dominance isn’t a guarantee of smooth driving ahead. Lithium-iron-phosphate chemistry remains cheap but faces supply-chain jitters, and US lawmakers are pressuring Wall Street banks to distance themselves from Chinese clean-tech champions. Even so, analysts argue CATL’s limited direct exposure to US sales insulates it from the harshest tariff blows, while its tech lead could force Western automakers to partner rather than pass. For now, the market verdict is clear: in the battery arms race, scale and speed still trump politics.