Appleby acted as Cayman counsel for CaoCao Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”) in its successful listing on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited on 25 June 2025, raising gross proceeds of approximately HKD1.85 billion based on the offering price. CaoCao Inc. is the second largest player in the ride hailing sector in China in terms of gross transaction value.
The Appleby team, led by Partner Judy Lee and assisted by Legal Manager Kelly Tang, played an important role in this transaction as the Cayman Islands lawyers.
This initial public offering attracted six cornerstone investors, including Mercedes-Benz Mobility Services GmbH, Mirae Asset Securities (HK) Ltd., Infini Global Master Fund, GOTION HIGH-TECH (HK) LIMITED, EVE Asia Co., Limited and RoboSense HongKong Limited, who collectively subscribed to HKD952 million worth of shares. The joint sponsors for the transaction include Huatai Financial Holdings (Hong Kong) Limited, ABCI Capital Limited, and GF Capital (Hong Kong) Limited.
The Group is a ride hailing platform in China, originally incubated by the group of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Company Limited. As of 31 December 2024, the Group operated more than 34,000 customised vehicles across 31 cities and has expanded its ride-hailing services to 136 cities. The Group collaborates with car partners for a substantial portion of the orders completed, while also providing its own vehicles to certain drivers.
The funds raised will be mainly allocated for improving the auto solutions, enhancing and launching purpose-built vehicles of the Group, enhancing technology, investing in autonomous driving, expanding the Group’s geographical coverage and repayment of part of its bank borrowings.
Our Hong Kong Capital Markets team is highly regarded for its extensive expertise in supporting offshore companies with IPOs, introductions, placements, and listings of both equity and debt securities on the Hong Kong, U.S., Singapore, and many other internationally recognised stock exchanges.