William Li holds lower percentage of shares in NIO

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- William Li, founder and chairman of NIO, holds more shares in the New York-listed EV startup while the percentage slightly decreased, according to a document file to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this week.

The document shows that as of December 31, 2019, Mr. Li held a total of 154,689,253 Class A ordinary shares with shared voting power and shared dispositive power, accounting for 13.8% of total shares, versus 151,689,253 shares (14.4%) reported in the late January of 2019.

(Photo source: NIO)

According to NIO's IPO prospectus filed in August 2018, William Li initially owned 17.2% of the company through various holding entities.

The shares currently controlled by Mr. Li include 1) 6,000,000 Class A ordinary shares issuable to Li upon exercise of options within 60 days after December 31, 2019; 2) 72,234,928 Class C ordinary shares (which are convertible into Class A ordinary shares) held on record by Originalwish Limited, a British Virgin Islands company wholly owned by Mr. Li; 3) 26,454,325 Class C ordinary shares held on record by mobike Global Ltd., a British Virgin Islands company wholly owned by Mr. Li; 4) 189,253 Class A ordinary shares and 49,810,747 Class C ordinary shares held on record by NIO Users Limited, a holding company controlled by NIO Users Trust, which is controlled by Mr. Li as the settlor and protector of the trust.

Any financing moves about the high-profiled EV manufacturer always draw lots of the public’s attention. In late January 2019, NIO announced a proposed offering of US$650 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2024. Entities affiliated with Tencent Holdings Limited and Hillhouse Capital Management Limited were expected to purchase up to US$30 million and US$10 million respectively.

Then in last September, NIO claimed it had entered into convertible note subscription agreements with an affiliate of Tencent Holdings Limited and William Li to issue and sell convertible notes worth US$200 million to the investors through a private placement.

According to documents submitted by Hillhouse Capital to the SEC, as of December 31, 2019, Hillhouse Capital, once the third largest shareholder of NIO, had no longer held shares in the startup.