Asia Tech Wire (Apr 3) -- Wang Xing, chief executive officer of Chinese food delivery giant Meituan (3690.HK), last week cut his stake in electric car maker Li Auto (2015.HK) in consecutive trading sessions, involving HK$503 million (US$64.22 million).
Wang reduced his holdings in Li Auto for three consecutive trading days from March 26 to 28, reducing his stake in the company by a total of 4,162,300 shares, according to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
After completing those transactions, the 45-year-old billionaire entrepreneur's stake in the electric car company dropped from 21.76% to 21.53%.
In response, a Li Auto representative told Chinese media on Wednesday, "Recently, Wang Xing sold his shares in the open window, and the exact number of shares is based on Wang Xing's statement of interest filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for the record."
"The trading of the shares was a personal act, and the transaction accounted for a very small portion of his total shareholding and did not involve any part of Meituan's shareholding," the person added.
In fact, back in September 2023, Wang reduced his stake in Hong Kong-listed shares of Li Auto by 1,497,900 shares, cashing out around HK$311 million ($39.71 million).
After this reduction, he still owns 384 million shares of Li Auto, reducing his stake from 21.9% to 21.79%.
According to Li Auto's official website, Wang is still a non-executive director of the company.
Wang and Meituan has invested in Li Auto several times over the past few years.
In August 2019, Li Auto announced the completion of a $530 million Series C financing round, which was led by Wang with nearly $300 million.
And in June 2020, Li Auto secured $550 million in Series D financing, of which $500 million came from Meituan's strategic investment arm.
Wang and Meituan continued to participate as cornerstone investors in Li Auto's $1.47 billion U.S. IPO in July 2020, subscribing for shares worth $30 million and $300 million, respectively.
And in December 2020, Li Auto issued an additional 47 million American depositary receipts (ADRs), and Wang again subscribed for shares worth $20 million.
