(Yicai Global) Feb. 16 -- Chinese battery heavyweight Contemporary Amperex Technology is suing Svolt Energy Technology, charging its rival with unfair competition. 

Nine former CATL employees joined two affiliates of Svolt -- Wuxi Tianhong Enterprise Management Consulting and Baoding Yixin Consulting Services -- between 2018 and 2019, before their non-compete agreements expired, legal documents showed. CATL claims damages of CNY1 million (USD157,800) from each person.

The case will be tried on Feb. 23 in a court in Ningde, the city where CATL is headquartered, according to corporate information platform Tianyancha. Baoding-based Svolt said it is preparing for the lawsuit, The Paper reported today.

CATL previously sued Tafel New Energy Technology and China Lithium Battery Technology for patent infringement. A court ruled last year that Tafel must pay CATL CNY23.3 million in damages. The dispute with CALB has not yet been resolved.

CATL is China’s largest battery maker by installed capacity and has a market share of over 50 percent, according to data from the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance. Svolt ranks sixth, with a share of around 2 percent.

Founded in 2018 after splitting from carmaker Great Wall Motors, Svolt had completed five fundraisers, bagging a total of more than CNY20 billion (USD3.2 billion). The latest round, led by a fund jointly set up by Zhejiang Hailiang and JZ Capital, closed on Jan. 17, giving the firm a market value of CNY46 billion.

Svolt is planning an initial public offering on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-like Star Market this year, to raise between CNY3 billion and CNY5 billion. It is expected to have all listing application documents ready by next month, according to previous media reports.

Svolt last year announced seven capacity expansions with a total investment of CNY77.6 billion. It has nine battery plants both in China and overseas. The company plans to increase its global capacity to 600 gigawatt-hours by 2025, it said in December.

Editor: Futura Costaglione