After investors proposed privatization through the parent company Geely Auto, the stock of electric vehicle manufacturer ZEEKR was suspended from trading on December 22, less than two years since the company's initial public offering (IPO).
<h4>Key Points:</h4>
<ul>
<li>ZEEKR was suspended on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, paving the way for its delisting and merger with its Hong Kong parent company Geely Auto.</li>
<li>The delisting decision stems from both company-specific factors and reflects the unfriendly market environment for Chinese companies on Wall Street.</li>
</ul>
Yang Ge
The year 2025 is expected to be a bumper year for the Hong Kong IPO market, while the situation in the U.S. market is quite the opposite. In the past, many Chinese private enterprises often chose to go public in the U.S. during their business expansion phases, but this path has clearly cooled down. As a result, as 2025 enters its final week, the most striking scene left by Chinese companies on Wall Street is not the ringing of the IPO bell, but the exit of electric vehicle manufacturer ZEEKR Intelligent Tech Holdings Limited (ZK.US), which is even more significant.
In fact, ZEEKR first proposed the idea of delisting back in May this year, just about a year after it raised $440 million on Wall Street in 2024, making it one of the largest Chinese IPOs that year. Therefore, the company's announcement of its delisting on Monday effectively deducts $440 million from the total fundraising amount of Chinese companies on Wall Street this year.
Last year, Chinese companies going public in the U.S. already performed poorly, and the situation is even worse in 2025. According to Deloitte's statistics, only 63 Chinese companies are expected to go public in the U.S. this year, raising a total of $1.12 billion. In comparison, 59 Chinese companies went public in the U.S. in 2024, raising a total of $1.91 billion. This also reflects that although the number of companies going public in the U.S. has increased this year, the scale of individual IPOs has significantly shrunk, with the average fundraising amount dropping from $32 million in 2024 to only about $18 million this year. If we further deduct the $440 million raised by ZEEKR last year due to privatization, the actual funds raised by Chinese companies on Wall Street this year would only be about $680 million.
ZEEKR's brief listing career has been fraught with ups and downs, and its privatization process has also not been smooth sailing. After issuing American Depositary Shares (ADS) at $21 each, the stock price once fell to $13, but also reached as high as $30, reflecting the divergent views of investors on its prospects in the fiercely competitive Chinese electric vehicle market. Complicating matters further, the parent company Geely Auto (0175.HK) pushed for the integration of its high-end brand Lynk &amp; Co with ZEEKR at the end of 2024, leaving many ZEEKR shareholders dissatisfied.
In May of this year, Geely first proposed to privatize the company at $25.66 per ADS, a 22% premium over ZEEKR's IPO price, which is acceptable but not particularly impressive. However, after early investors including battery giant CATL, video platform Bilibili, and Intel Investment opposed the proposal, Geely ultimately raised the offer slightly to $26.87 per ADS. At the same time, Geely also provided a share exchange option, allowing investors to exchange each ADS for 12.3 shares of Geely Auto listed in Hong Kong, based on Monday's closing price
Equivalent to approximately $26.77.
As the privatization progresses, ZEEKR's development prospects and financial performance are not particularly impressive, and its stock was suspended on December 22, marking a key step in the privatization process. The last financial report as a publicly listed company in New York showed that ZEEKR's third-quarter revenue grew by 9% year-on-year to 31.6 billion yuan (approximately $4.5 billion), with losses narrowing significantly from 2.03 billion yuan in the same period last year to 307 million yuan. Notably, as the scale of the electric vehicle business expands, coupled with contributions from Lynk &amp; Co, ZEEKR's latest gross margin increased from 15.2% in the same period last year to 19.2%.
<h4>Decline in Electric Vehicle Sales</h4>
At the same time, ZEEKR's latest revenue growth remains in single digits, which is indeed disappointing. More importantly, this performance offsets the pressure on its core business, as the ZEEKR brand electric vehicles, originally seen as the main growth driver, have actually experienced a decline in sales. According to the monthly sales data released by the company, in the first 11 months of this year, the cumulative sales of ZEEKR brand electric vehicles were 193,866 units, a year-on-year decrease of 0.55%. During the same period, Lynk &amp; Co's sales grew by 22% year-on-year to 316,744 units, driving the overall vehicle sales of the company up by 12.4% year-on-year in the first 11 months of this year.
After completing the privatization, ZEEKR will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Geely Auto. Before announcing the privatization, Geely already held 65.7% of ZEEKR's shares.
Shortly after its listing, ZEEKR chose to exit Wall Street, primarily due to the company's own development considerations. The integration of ZEEKR into the Geely system is part of founder Li Shufu's ongoing consolidation of his vast automotive empire. This empire already includes several publicly listed companies, such as Volvo (VOLCAR-B.ST), Lotus (LOT.US), as well as technology companies like Yika Tong (ECX.US), Zhixing Technology (1274.HK), and the ride-hailing platform Caocao Chuxing (2643.HK).
At the same time, the United States has become increasingly tough on Chinese companies listing on Wall Street. Nasdaq announced in September plans to tighten regulations on small Chinese listed companies, requiring all IPOs to raise at least $25 million and maintain a public float market value of no less than $5 million. These regulations are still pending review by U.S. securities regulators.
Zhang Wei, the national partner in charge of Deloitte China's capital markets services for U.S. listings, stated that if Nasdaq's proposed listing thresholds are officially passed around the second quarter of 2026, it is expected that fewer Chinese companies will be able to meet the new requirements. He pointed out that this may force many smaller Chinese companies to rethink their financing strategies and listing timelines.
According to information on the official website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, there are currently about 54 Chinese companies applying to list on Nasdaq, and these applications are still pending approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission. The list shows that these applying companies have all hired smaller underwriters, indicating that many planned IPOs may be on the smaller side and may not necessarily meet Nasdaq's proposed minimum fundraising threshold of $25 million
ZEEKR's scale will obviously not be directly affected by the new Nasdaq regulations. When the stock was suspended, its market value was close to $7 billion, far exceeding the relevant threshold. However, ZEEKR entered the Chinese electric vehicle market relatively late, and this market is already highly competitive and has quickly shown signs of slowing down. In such an environment, if it continues to operate as an independent listed company, the outlook is indeed not optimistic

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ZEEKR suspended trading on the New York Stock Exchange on December 22 after investors proposed privatization through its parent company Geely Auto, planning to delist and merge into the Hong Kong-listed parent company Geely Auto. This decision reflects the unfriendly environment for Chinese companies on Wall Street. ZEEKR raised $440 million in its Wall Street IPO in 2024, becoming one of the largest Chinese IPOs of the year. In 2025, Chinese companies listed in the U.S. performed poorly, and ZEEKR's delisting further reduced the total fundraising amount for Chinese companies on Wall Street

- On December 22, 2025, the stock of electric vehicle manufacturer Zeekr was suspended as its parent company Geely proposed privatization, marking less than two years since its IPO.  
- The decision to delist reflects not only the company's internal challenges but also a less welcoming environment for Chinese firms on Wall Street.  
- Following the privatization, Zeekr will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Geely, which already holds 65.7% of its shares, amid declining sales and pressure from a competitive market.

The United States does not retain people, but there are places to retain them. ZEEKR will be privatized and merged into Geely