China's Largest Humanoid Robot Firm, Unitree Robotics, to Go Public on the 10th at a Valuation of 1.28 Trillion Won

[Financial News] Unitree Robotics, China's largest humanoid robot company, will go public on the 10th at an offering price of 150.8 yuan per share.
On the 7th, citing China Business Network and other outlets, Unitree set its offering price on the 6th at 150.8 yuan per share, with a price-to-earnings ratio of 219.23 times. Based on that price, the company's valuation stands at 61 billion yuan, or about 1.28 trillion won. It is expected to extend the wave of high-tech listings that followed ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), a memory chip company.
The offering will be carried out through a mix of strategic allocation, offline issuance and online issuance. A total of 40,446,400 shares will be offered, equal to 10% of the company's total shares outstanding after the IPO.
The initial strategic allocation will account for 8,089,300 shares, or 20% of the total offering. The initial offline offering will consist of 25,886,100 shares, or about 80% of the shares offered excluding the strategic allocation. The online offering will total 6,471,000 shares.
Unitree plans to use the funds raised for research into AI models for robots, new product development and expansion of production facilities.
Founder Wang Xingxing holds a 33.35% stake before the IPO, including 23.82% directly and 9.53% indirectly. Based on the offering price, that stake is worth 18.3 billion yuan, or about 3.8 trillion won.
Competition for subscriptions is expected to be intense, given the relatively small size of Unitree's IPO and its status as the first listed company in the market.
This year, 13 new stocks have been listed on China's Science and Technology Innovation Board, known as the STAR Market. Excluding ChangXin Memory Technologies, the winning rates for the other 12 new listings were around 0.02% to 0.03%. Many investors expect Unitree's odds to be similar.
Unitree is the first listed company in the humanoid robot industry, and its profitability is also strong, raising expectations that its share price will surge on the first day of trading.
Unitree posted net profit of 95.474 million yuan in 2024, turning profitable. Last year, its net profit reached 278 million yuan, more than doubling from a year earlier. Competitors in the same sector, including UBTECH, Yuejiang and Leju Robotics, reported losses last year, while only Cloud Deep posted a slight profit.
UBTECH, Hong Kong's first humanoid robot company, was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Dec. 29, 2023, and opened at HK$89.9, below its IPO price of HK$90. CCB International valued Unitree at 109 billion yuan.
Humanoid robots were included for the first time in China's government work report last year, and they were also written into the national strategic plan as one of six future industries in the 15th Five-Year Plan, alongside quantum technology and biomanufacturing.
Founded in 2016, Unitree drew attention this year after appearing in a special Lunar New Year television program with a group martial arts performance at Temple of Heaven Park.
Ahead of Unitree's listing on the STAR Market, which is often described as China's version of Nasdaq, China Business Network said online communities had turned into a kind of "cyber wishing well," reflecting investors' enthusiasm as the online subscription deadline approached.

[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, International Desk Reporter