Marketdash
Back to Stock Market News

Zeekr's Quick Exit From Wall Street Signals Frosty Future for Chinese IPOs

MarketDash Editorial Team
3 hours ago
Electric vehicle maker Zeekr suspended trading on the NYSE less than two years after raising $440 million, as parent company Geely takes it private. The move highlights both company-specific struggles and Wall Street's increasingly chilly reception toward Chinese listings.

If you're looking for a symbol of how dramatically the fortunes of Chinese companies on Wall Street have shifted, consider this: one of the biggest moves by a Chinese firm on U.S. exchanges this year is an exit. Zeekr Intelligent Technology Holding Ltd. (ZK), the electric vehicle maker that raised $440 million in its 2024 IPO, suspended trading on the New York Stock Exchange on December 22 as it heads for the exit door.

The timing is almost poetic. While Hong Kong has been having a banner year for IPOs, Wall Street's romance with Chinese listings has turned decidedly cold. Zeekr announced its delisting plans back in May, roughly a year after its debut as one of the largest Chinese IPOs of 2024. The company confirmed Monday that its merger with Hong Kong-traded parent Geely is now complete.

The Numbers Tell a Grim Story

Let's talk about what's happening with Chinese fundraising on Wall Street, because it's not pretty. According to Deloitte, Chinese companies raised about $1.12 billion across 63 listings in 2025. That's down from $1.91 billion raised by 59 companies in 2024. Do the math: the average IPO size shrank from $32 million to just $18 million. And if you treat Zeekr's privatization as negative $440 million in fundraising, Chinese firms effectively raised only $680 million this year.

That's a far cry from the glory days when Wall Street was the go-to destination for high-growth Chinese companies looking to raise capital and gain international credibility.

A Rocky Ride for Zeekr

Zeekr's brief stint as a public company was turbulent from the start. The company sold American depositary shares at $21 each in its IPO, then watched them swing between $13 and $30 as investors tried to figure out its prospects in China's brutally competitive new energy vehicle market. Adding to the drama, parent company Geely forced a merger between Zeekr and its Lynk & Co. luxury car division in late 2024, which didn't exactly thrill Zeekr shareholders.

When Geely first offered to take Zeekr private in May at $25.66 per ADS, that represented a 22% premium to the IPO price. Decent, but not exactly generous. A group of early investors pushed back hard, including some serious names like battery giant CATL, online video platform Bilibili, and Intel Capital. Geely eventually sweetened the deal slightly to $26.87 per ADS, and offered shareholders the option to swap each ADS for 12.3 shares of Hong Kong-listed Geely, worth about $26.77 based on Monday's closing price.

The Business Wasn't Exactly Thriving

Zeekr's financials at the time of privatization weren't setting anyone's heart racing. The company's final report as a New York-listed entity showed third-quarter revenue rising 9% year-over-year to 31.6 billion yuan ($4.5 billion), while its loss narrowed significantly to 307 million yuan from 2.03 billion yuan a year earlier. The gross margin improved from 15.2% to 19.2%, helped by scale and the Lynk & Co. contribution.

But here's the uncomfortable truth hiding in those numbers: sales of Zeekr-branded EVs, supposedly the company's main growth engine, were actually shrinking. According to monthly sales data, Zeekr brand EVs totaled 193,866 units in the first eleven months of 2025, down 0.55% year-over-year. Meanwhile, Lynk & Co. sales jumped 22% to 316,744 units during the same period. Overall vehicle sales rose 12.4%, but only because the merged-in brand was carrying the weight.

Single-digit revenue growth in the EV sector is hardly the stuff of Wall Street dreams, especially when your core brand is losing ground.

Why This Happened

Zeekr's departure is partly a story about company-specific dynamics. Founder Li Shufu is consolidating his sprawling automotive empire, which includes an eclectic mix of brands and companies: Volvo, Lotus, technology firms like Ecarx and iMotion, and even ride-hailing company CaoCao. Following the privatization, Zeekr becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Geely, which already controlled 65.7% before the deal.

But there's a bigger story here about Wall Street's cooling relationship with Chinese companies. The regulatory environment has become increasingly hostile. In September, Nasdaq announced plans to crack down on small Chinese listings, proposing requirements that companies raise at least $25 million in their IPOs and maintain public floats of $5 million or more. Those rules are currently under review by U.S. securities regulators.

"If Nasdaq's proposed listing thresholds are passed in around the second quarter of 2026, fewer Chinese companies are expected to be able to fulfill these new requirements," said Zhang Wei, national U.S. offering leader of Deloitte China's Capital Market Services Group. "This could prompt many smaller Chinese companies to rethink their financing strategies and timetables."

What's Next for Chinese Listings

The impact could be substantial. Some 54 Chinese companies currently have applications for Nasdaq listings awaiting approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission, which must greenlight all such listings. According to the regulator's website, all these applicants hired small underwriters, suggesting many would fall below Nasdaq's proposed $25 million threshold.

Zeekr wouldn't have been touched by these new limits, of course. With a market value near $7 billion when trading was suspended, it was plenty big enough. But arriving late to China's crowded and slowing EV market didn't exactly set Zeekr up for success as an independent public company.

At the end of the day, Zeekr's Wall Street departure shouldn't shock anyone. The company faced weakening competitive positioning and an increasingly unfriendly regulatory environment. The real question is whether we're about to see more Chinese companies follow Zeekr's lead, heading back to friendlier territory in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. If 2025 taught us anything, it's that the golden age of Chinese companies listing on Wall Street might be over.

Back to Stock Market News

Zeekr's Quick Exit From Wall Street Signals Frosty Future for Chinese IPOs

MarketDash Editorial Team
3 hours ago
Electric vehicle maker Zeekr suspended trading on the NYSE less than two years after raising $440 million, as parent company Geely takes it private. The move highlights both company-specific struggles and Wall Street's increasingly chilly reception toward Chinese listings.

If you're looking for a symbol of how dramatically the fortunes of Chinese companies on Wall Street have shifted, consider this: one of the biggest moves by a Chinese firm on U.S. exchanges this year is an exit. Zeekr Intelligent Technology Holding Ltd. (ZK), the electric vehicle maker that raised $440 million in its 2024 IPO, suspended trading on the New York Stock Exchange on December 22 as it heads for the exit door.

The timing is almost poetic. While Hong Kong has been having a banner year for IPOs, Wall Street's romance with Chinese listings has turned decidedly cold. Zeekr announced its delisting plans back in May, roughly a year after its debut as one of the largest Chinese IPOs of 2024. The company confirmed Monday that its merger with Hong Kong-traded parent Geely is now complete.

The Numbers Tell a Grim Story

Let's talk about what's happening with Chinese fundraising on Wall Street, because it's not pretty. According to Deloitte, Chinese companies raised about $1.12 billion across 63 listings in 2025. That's down from $1.91 billion raised by 59 companies in 2024. Do the math: the average IPO size shrank from $32 million to just $18 million. And if you treat Zeekr's privatization as negative $440 million in fundraising, Chinese firms effectively raised only $680 million this year.

That's a far cry from the glory days when Wall Street was the go-to destination for high-growth Chinese companies looking to raise capital and gain international credibility.

A Rocky Ride for Zeekr

Zeekr's brief stint as a public company was turbulent from the start. The company sold American depositary shares at $21 each in its IPO, then watched them swing between $13 and $30 as investors tried to figure out its prospects in China's brutally competitive new energy vehicle market. Adding to the drama, parent company Geely forced a merger between Zeekr and its Lynk & Co. luxury car division in late 2024, which didn't exactly thrill Zeekr shareholders.

When Geely first offered to take Zeekr private in May at $25.66 per ADS, that represented a 22% premium to the IPO price. Decent, but not exactly generous. A group of early investors pushed back hard, including some serious names like battery giant CATL, online video platform Bilibili, and Intel Capital. Geely eventually sweetened the deal slightly to $26.87 per ADS, and offered shareholders the option to swap each ADS for 12.3 shares of Hong Kong-listed Geely, worth about $26.77 based on Monday's closing price.

The Business Wasn't Exactly Thriving

Zeekr's financials at the time of privatization weren't setting anyone's heart racing. The company's final report as a New York-listed entity showed third-quarter revenue rising 9% year-over-year to 31.6 billion yuan ($4.5 billion), while its loss narrowed significantly to 307 million yuan from 2.03 billion yuan a year earlier. The gross margin improved from 15.2% to 19.2%, helped by scale and the Lynk & Co. contribution.

But here's the uncomfortable truth hiding in those numbers: sales of Zeekr-branded EVs, supposedly the company's main growth engine, were actually shrinking. According to monthly sales data, Zeekr brand EVs totaled 193,866 units in the first eleven months of 2025, down 0.55% year-over-year. Meanwhile, Lynk & Co. sales jumped 22% to 316,744 units during the same period. Overall vehicle sales rose 12.4%, but only because the merged-in brand was carrying the weight.

Single-digit revenue growth in the EV sector is hardly the stuff of Wall Street dreams, especially when your core brand is losing ground.

Why This Happened

Zeekr's departure is partly a story about company-specific dynamics. Founder Li Shufu is consolidating his sprawling automotive empire, which includes an eclectic mix of brands and companies: Volvo, Lotus, technology firms like Ecarx and iMotion, and even ride-hailing company CaoCao. Following the privatization, Zeekr becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Geely, which already controlled 65.7% before the deal.

But there's a bigger story here about Wall Street's cooling relationship with Chinese companies. The regulatory environment has become increasingly hostile. In September, Nasdaq announced plans to crack down on small Chinese listings, proposing requirements that companies raise at least $25 million in their IPOs and maintain public floats of $5 million or more. Those rules are currently under review by U.S. securities regulators.

"If Nasdaq's proposed listing thresholds are passed in around the second quarter of 2026, fewer Chinese companies are expected to be able to fulfill these new requirements," said Zhang Wei, national U.S. offering leader of Deloitte China's Capital Market Services Group. "This could prompt many smaller Chinese companies to rethink their financing strategies and timetables."

What's Next for Chinese Listings

The impact could be substantial. Some 54 Chinese companies currently have applications for Nasdaq listings awaiting approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission, which must greenlight all such listings. According to the regulator's website, all these applicants hired small underwriters, suggesting many would fall below Nasdaq's proposed $25 million threshold.

Zeekr wouldn't have been touched by these new limits, of course. With a market value near $7 billion when trading was suspended, it was plenty big enough. But arriving late to China's crowded and slowing EV market didn't exactly set Zeekr up for success as an independent public company.

At the end of the day, Zeekr's Wall Street departure shouldn't shock anyone. The company faced weakening competitive positioning and an increasingly unfriendly regulatory environment. The real question is whether we're about to see more Chinese companies follow Zeekr's lead, heading back to friendlier territory in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. If 2025 taught us anything, it's that the golden age of Chinese companies listing on Wall Street might be over.

    Zeekr's Quick Exit From Wall Street Signals Frosty Future for Chinese IPOs - MarketDash News