(Corrects to “1.1 trillion yuan” from “1.1 billion yuan” in paragraph 5)
SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Chinese battery giant CATL said it was planning a private share placement to raise up to 58.2 billion yuan ($8.98 billion) to fund six projects aimed at boosting its production capacity of lithium-ion batteries.
The massive fundraising comes as the Ningdo-based firm – formally Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd – expands battery manufacturing capacity around China and in Germany.
It will also be used to boost capital, CATL said in a statement late on Thursday.
As global auto industry accelerates transformation towards electrification, CATL is supplying electric vehicle batteries to a swathe of automakers including Tesla Inc, Volkswagen AG and Geely. It is competing with Japan’s Panasonic and South Korean LG Chem.
CATL currently has a market capitalisation of over 1.1 trillion yuan ($169.85 billion).
($1 = 6.4764 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Brenda Goh and Yilei Sun; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Himani Sarkar)
