• Eacon shares rose 14% to HK$100.6 as of press time, giving the company a market value of HK$14.8 billion.
• Founded in 2018, Eacon focuses on the commercial deployment of L4 autonomous driving solutions for mining sites.

Eacon Mining Technology (HKEX: 7687), a provider of autonomous driving solutions for mining sites backed by CATL (HKEX: 3750), surged on its Hong Kong trading debut on Wednesday, after its public offering was oversubscribed by about 157.82 times.

The stock opened at HK$91, up roughly 3.5% from its offer price of HK$87.92. As of press time, gains widened to about 14.31%, at HK$100.6 per share, bringing the company's market value to HK$14.8 billion.

The company offered about 26.13 million shares in its global offering, raising total proceeds of about HK$2.3 billion, with net proceeds of about HK$2.18 billion.

The offering drew 11 cornerstone investors, who together subscribed for about $146 million worth of shares, or about 49.8% of the total offer shares.

Those investors included Zijin Mining's ZIJINNING, Fidelity International, JPMorgan's JPMAMAPL and Barings, among other domestic and international institutions.

Founded in 2018, Eacon focuses on the commercial deployment of L4 autonomous driving solutions for mining sites. As of December 31, 2025, the company had deployed 2,580 active autonomous mining trucks.

Measured by the number of active autonomous mining trucks, Eacon ranked first in China's market for mining-site autonomous driving solutions, with a 55.5% share.

Its fleet of autonomous mining trucks deployed at a single mining site has exceeded 500, the largest such fleet deployed at a single site globally, according to its prospectus.

The penetration rate of autonomous mining trucks in China is expected to rise from about 12% in 2025 to more than 50% by 2030, according to data from Frost & Sullivan.

Eacon's revenue grew 45.5% year-on-year in 2025 to 1.44 billion yuan ($211 million), up about 4.3 times from 271 million yuan in 2023.

The company has yet to turn a profit. From 2023 to 2025, its net losses were 334 million yuan, 390 million yuan and 516 million yuan, respectively, for a cumulative loss of about 1.24 billion yuan over the three years.

Its profitability is improving, however. As the company shifted from a capital-intensive self-owned fleet model to an asset-lighter customer-provided fleet model, its gross margin turned positive from a negative figure in 2023, rising to 10.1% in 2025.

Battery giant CATL is a key backer of Eacon. In June 2025, CATL led the company's Series D round of more than 400 million yuan through its industrial investment platform CATL Capital and its own funds.

In October of the same year, the two signed a strategic cooperation agreement to collaborate across capital, technology, market and ecosystem dimensions around electric autonomous mining scenarios.

Eacon's other shareholders include Zijin Mining, Nio Capital and Eight Roads. The company's customers span large mining and industrial groups such as China Energy Investment, Zijin Mining, Shougang Group and Baowu Group.

Proceeds from the IPO will mainly go toward research and development and internationalization. The company plans to use about 35% of the net proceeds for software R&D, about 23% for overseas business expansion and customer acquisition, and about 15% for hardware R&D.

Overseas markets are one of Eacon's key priorities. The company established subsidiaries in Australia and Singapore in 2023 and has forged partnerships with overseas mining service providers such as Thiess and MACA, with plans to expand into markets including Australia, Canada, Chile, Mongolia, the Middle East and Africa.

Also on Wednesday, autonomous driving company Momenta (HKEX: 6880) was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with its shares rising as much as about 6% on the first day.

Momenta is also one of Nio Capital's portfolio companies.

($1 = 6.8006 yuan)