The electric vehicle battery manufacturer Envision AESC, headquartered in Japan and controlled by China’s Envision Group with backing from Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, is contemplating a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) that could potentially raise up to $2 billion, according to Bloomberg. This decision marks a shift from the company’s earlier plans to list in the United States.
Sources familiar with the situation indicate that these considerations are in the early stages. The potential Hong Kong listing contrasts with AESC’s previous intention to pursue a U.S. listing. Established in 2007 as a joint venture between Nissan Motor and NEC for supplying batteries for Nissan’s Leaf EV, AESC has a complex ownership structure and international presence.
In 2018, Shanghai-based Envision Group, a Chinese clean energy conglomerate chaired by Zhang Lei, acquired a controlling interest in AESC, while Nissan maintained a minority stake. Envision Group, which also operates renewable energy and AIoT platforms, secured over $1 billion in 2021 from GIC, Sequoia Capital (via Sequoia China), and Primavera Capital. AESC’s manufacturing operations extend across Japan, the U.S. (Smyrna, Tennessee), the U.K. (Sunderland), and Europe. The Sunderland facility is one of the largest battery plants in the U.K., highlighting AESC’s substantial European industrial role despite its Chinese ownership.
In Bloomberg’s October 2023 report on a planned U.S. IPO, complexities arose due to AESC’s Chinese ownership amid U.S. Inflation Reduction Act stipulations against foreign entities of concern, which would exclude Chinese-linked EV battery producers from tax credits. This appears to have influenced AESC’s potential pivot to a Hong Kong listing.
Hong Kong’s IPO market saw a significant rebound in 2025 and 2026, topping global IPO fundraising in 2025 with HK$285.8 billion from 119 listings, per PwC. The first quarter of 2026 alone raised HK$110 billion, a record since Q2 2021, driven by hard-tech and AI listings. A possible $2 billion IPO by AESC would rank among the larger offerings in the present Hong Kong cycle, though Bloomberg noted that such plans are preliminary and subject to change regarding size and timing.