DRONE maker EHang has delayed plans for a U.S. initial public offering (IPO) and is instead looking to raise up to US$200 million in a private fundraising, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. EHang had been seeking between US$400 million and US$500 million from a U.S. IPO this year, previous media reports said. Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley have been working on the offering. The 5-year-old company has decided to put off those plans as it is not ready to go public, Reuters quoted the sources as saying yesterday. It drew lukewarm investor interest, added one of them. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Guangzhou, EHang first made headlines in 2016 when it unveiled a passenger drone concept which it said would retail at up to US$300,000. Early last year it said it had completed tests for the vehicle which is capable of carrying one person at speeds of up to 130 kph. In May, EHang broke the Guinness World Record for most drones flown simultaneously in a 13-minute flight that involved 1,374 drones spread over a kilometer. EHang specializes in aerial landscaping. In consumer drones, it is dwarfed by fellow Chinese drone maker SZ DJI Technology Co., which is the world’s largest maker of non-military drones and plans to list either in Hong Kong or on mainland markets, sources familiar with the matter said last year. The global market for drones was expected to reach US$9 billion last year and is forecast by research firm IDC to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 30 percent in the next five years. IDC also estimates that more than half of that spending will be on drones for commercial use.(SD-Agencies) |