Chinese self-driving startup WeRide files for $119 million U.S. IPO

(Reuters) - Chinese self-driving startup WeRide has filed for a $119.4 million initial public offering on Nasdaq and a private placement of $320.5 million, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

As part of the offering, the Guangzhou-based company will offer 6.5 million American depositary shares in a price range of $15.5 to $18.5 apiece, raising up to $119.4 million. It also plans to raise around $320.5 million in a concurrent private placement.

The autonomous driving startup had in August said it would seek a valuation of as much as $5.02 billion as part of its IPO, at a time when the Biden administration was expected to propose barring Chinese software in autonomous vehicles in the United States.

The company was granted approval last year by China's securities regulator for a US listing.

It was founded in Silicon Valley in 2017 and later incorporated in the Cayman Islands. It then launched a robotaxi service in Guangzhou, China, in 2019.

Investors had been closely awaiting WeRide's potential listing to look for signs of pickup for Chinese IPOs in the U.S.

Chinese IPOs in the U.S. had dried up in the past couple of years, after ride-hailing giant Didi Global was forced to delist in 2022 following backlash from Chinese regulators.

The IPO would be one of the largest U.S. listing by a Chinese firm since Didi's in 2021. It would be the second major China-based company to seek U.S. listing this year. In May, electric-vehicle maker Zeekr debuted on the New York Stock Exchange.

(This story has been corrected to say WeRide filed for a $119.4 million IPO and $320.5 million placement, not $440 mln IPO, in the headline and paragraph 1)

(Reporting by Scott Murdoch and Rishav Chatterjee; Editing by Rashmi Aich)