(Yicai Global) Sept. 9 -- China Aviation Lithium Battery was given the greenlight yesterday by the Hong Kong stock exchange to proceed with an initial public offering that could see China’s third-largest electric car battery maker raise as much as USD2 billion, the Paper reported today.

The IPO could happen as soon as this month and is set to be the biggest listing on the Hong Kong bourse so far this year, the report said. Huatai International is exclusive sponsor.

CALB holds a 25 percent share of China’s electric car battery market, the third largest slice after CATL and BYD. It overtook South Korea’s Samsung SDI in July to rank sixth in the world in terms of total battery installed capacity with 2.1 gigawatt hours, according to SNE Research.

And the firm is expanding. It said previously that it will increase capacity to over 130 GWh this year, 500 GWh by 2025 and 1,000 GWh by 2030.

CALB, though, is embroiled in a number of lawsuits with rival CATL over alleged patent infringements. Ningde, southeastern Fujian province-based CATL is asking for a total of CNY648 million (USD95.7 million) in compensation, nearly six times CALB’s 2021 net profit.

CALB believes the claims lack sufficient evidence and the lawsuits will not have a major adverse impact on business, finances or operating results, the Changzhou, eastern Jiangsu province-based firm said in its initial public offering filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange in March.

But if CALB loses the cases, the huge payout will badly affect the listing process, a Shanghai-based lawyer told Yicai Global earlier.

CALB’s battery sales surged nearly 6-fold in the three years from 2019 to 2021 to 9.31 GWh, with a compound annual growth rate of 139.7 percent, as booming sales of new energy vehicles spur demand. The firm turned a profit last year, at CNY110 million (USD15.8 million), compared with losses of CNY18.3 million in 2020. It achieved revenue of CNY6.8 billion (USD980 million) in 2021.

Editors: Shi Yi, Kim Taylor