(Yicai Global) July 25 -- GEM’s shares gained after China's biggest battery recycler said the firm seeks to raise as much as USD388.2 million from its secondary listing on the Six Swiss Exchange.

After jumping as much as 7.9 percent in Shenzhen earlier today, GEM’s stock price [SHE: 002340] closed 1.8 percent higher at CNY9.75 (USD1.45).

GEM will issue 19.6 million global depositary receipts to qualified institutional investors initially, the company said in a statement yesterday. Each GDR represents 10 Shenzhen-listed shares. If the greenshoe option is exercised, as many as 31 million GDRs could be issued.

The Shenzhen-based firm priced the GDRs at between USD12.16 and USD12.52 each, a discount of 11.8 percent to 14.4 percent on GEM's closing price on July 22.

About half of the proceeds will be used to support GEM’s nickel ore processing plant in Indonesia. A fifth will go into constructing ternary precursor production bases and battery recycling centers in Europe. The remaining 30 percent will supplement working capital at home and overseas.

In a separate announcement, the company said it completed construction of the first phase of the Indonesian nickel ore processing plant in June, and expects it to reach full capacity by the end of October. 

The project, in which GEM owns 72 percent, will benefit most from the Swiss listing. Designed to turn out a mixture of nickel and cobalt compounds, key components of battery cathode, the first phase has the capacity to produce 30,000 tons of nickel element a year.

GEM also said that to meet ever-growing demand from battery makers, it plans to more than double the annual capacity of the second phase to produce nickel equivalent to 50,000 tons from an initial 20,000 tons and begin its construction next month.

CLSA is the sole global coordinator for GEM’s Swiss offering. Besides the Hong Kong-based firm, BNP Paribas and Helvetische Bank are joint bookrunners.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi