I'm LongbridgeAI, I can summarize articles.Unitree Robotics' IPO saw intense retail demand, with nearly 9.8 million accounts competing for 9.7 million shares, resulting in a 0.018% allocation rate. The company raised $904 million at a valuation of 60.99 billion yuan. This listing sets a benchmark for China's embodied AI sector, though its high valuation multiples exceed peers like UBTech.
While Unitree Robotics’ early backers are poised for a windfall in one of China’s most closely watched technology initial public offerings (IPOs), retail investors are scrambling for a tiny chance of securing shares. Nearly 9.8 million accounts competed in the Hangzhou-based robot maker’s online subscription process on Monday, fighting for just 9.7 million shares, its filings in the evening showed. The final online allocation rate was just 0.018 per cent – roughly one winning lot for every 5,500 applications. On Shanghai’s Star Market, each winning IPO lot comprises 500 shares, while investors’ application quotas depend on their eligible Shanghai-market holdings. Winners are chosen at random. Valid online subscriptions reached 53.64 billion shares, or 8,288.82 times the 6.47 million shares initially reserved for online investors. That triggered a clawback mechanism, boosting the retail tranche to 9.7 million shares. The odds of securing Unitree shares are markedly slimmer than in several other recent blockbuster technology listings. Memory-chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies, known as CXMT, had a final online allocation rate of about 0.47 per cent in its July IPO, which attracted more than 9.4 million accounts. Graphics processing unit makers Moore Threads Technology and MetaX Integrated Circuits recorded final rates of about 0.036 per cent and 0.033 per cent, respectively, in their hotly contested listings late last year. Unitree’s unusually low allocation rate reflects both intense retail demand and a relatively small pool of shares available to individual investors. Of the 40.45 million shares on offer, 20 per cent went to strategic investors. After the clawback, about 24 per cent of the total offering was allocated online, while roughly 56 per cent went to offline professional investors. Unitree will raise about 6.1 billion yuan (US$904 million) from the IPO, valuing the company at 60.99 billion yuan. The listing is set to provide a valuation benchmark for China’s booming embodied artificial intelligence sector. At the offer price of 150.80 yuan a share, Unitree is valued at 219.23 times earnings and 35.89 times sales, well above the price-to-sales multiples of listed robot makers such as UBTech and Dobot. The selection will be held on Tuesday, with winning accounts to be announced on Wednesday.