Zeekr Group‘s shareholders approved on Monday the company’s merger with Geely Automobile Holdings.
The completion of the merger — which Geely expects to be “as quickly as possible” — will turn Zeekr Group a subsidiary unit of the Chinese conglomerate.
The delisting from the New York Stock Exchange will take effect as soon — and delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.
The premium brand will become a privately held firm again after the initial public offering that took place in May 2024. Over the first three months, the share price plummeted about 50% to $13.00.
Geely said on Monday that “approximately 96.8% of the company’s total outstanding ordinary shares (…) voted in person or by proxy at the extraordinary general meeting,” with each ordinary share held representing one vote for the shareholder.
The agreement and the Plan of Merger was approved by approximately 94.2% of the total votes cast.
Under the terms of the Merger Agreement, announced on July 15, Zeekr shareholders will have the option to receive either $26.87 in cash per American depositary share or 12.3 newly issued Geely shares for each Zeekr ADS.
Zeekr closed at $29.10 on Friday. The stock surged 84.8% in the past twelve months.
Zeekr’s all time high was reached last March, when the stock closed at $33.32, following the unveiling of its first hybrid-powered vehicle, the Zeekr 9X large SUV.
The model debuted a few weeks later at the Shanghai Auto Show in April.
On August 29, Zeekr opened pre-orders for the luxury three-row 9X. Within one hour, the company announced it received 42,667 orders.
Pre-order prices started from 479,900 yuan ($67,360). Deliveries are scheduled to start in October.
The Zeekr Group, which includes both Zeekr and Lynk & Co, delivered 44,843 vehicles in August, from which 17,626 were Zeekr units and 27,217 were Lynk and Co’s.
Deliveries were up 10.6% year over year — and 1.5% sequentially. Lynk&Co only joined in February, meaning that, considering only Zeekr vehicles, deliveries are down 2.2% from August 2024.
In mid-July, Reuters reported that the Chinese automaker has been inflating its sales numbers over the past few years, citing information from several dealers and buyers.
According to the report, the company would insure “0-kilometer used vehicles,” which helped the company meet its monthly and quarterly sales targets — since official sales figures are often tracked through insurance registration data.
Zeekr responded to the “innacurate” reports, saying that they refer to “display vehicles,” which have “compulsory traffic insurance but have never been issued retail invoices, nor registered or licensed at any vehicle maganement authority.”
