IMC-Chicago, the US subsidiary of Dutch investment firm IMC, doubled its stake in EV maker Nio for the second consecutive quarter in the final months of 2025.
The firm finished the year holding a 3,178,590-share position in Nio, worth $16.2 million at the time, according to its quarterly portfolio update with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Since then, the holdings have lost about $1 million in value. Nio shares fell 7.8% in the past month, dropping from a closing price of $5.10 on December 31, 2025, to $4.70 at Thursday’s close.
In early January, the stock fell to a five-month low as uncertainty over its upcoming earnings report weighed on investors, despite the company’s recent milestones, including delivering a record month in December.
This Thursday, Nio said that it had achieved its first profitable target ever, meeting the goal set by the company’s management.
As of press time, its shares were jumping over 9% at $5.13.
IMC-Chicago began 2025 with over 1.8 million shares in the EV maker, slashing the position to just 644,280 during the first six months of it.
However, the firm nearly doubled its stake in the EV maker year over year, based on its third- and fourth-quarter disclosures.
IMC cut its Nio call option holdings by 8.9% to 5.2 million contracts, while their value fell 39% to $16.9 million.
It also reduced its put options by 7.9% to 6.3 million contracts, with those holdings valued at $32 million.
Previous Holdings
IMC first invested in Nio in mid-2019, less than a year after the EV maker went public.
Since then, the firm has fully exited and returned to the stock four times, the latest having been in late 2024.
Its position in the company has been volatile throughout the past four years, Fintel data shows.
Its Nio holdings had previously peaked at 2.84 million shares in the first quarter of that year.
The firm also holds a stake in Chinese automaker XPeng, reporting ownership of 809,987 shares at the end of the fourth quarter.
After disclosing just 58,098 shares in the second quarter, IMC increased its position by 919% between July and September, followed by another 36.8% increase in the final months of the year.
It exited its 457,192-share stake in Li Auto last quarter. It also sold all its 112,770 shares in US automaker Rivian two months ago.
On the other hand, it acquired 105,477 shares in Lucid Motors between October and December, valued at $1.1 million. It is the first time the firm invests in the Irvine-based automaker since its IPO in 2021.
Its Tesla stake increased by 74.9% to 830,913 shares, worth $373.7 million.
Nio Institutional Ownership
Between mid-2022 and mid-2025, the number of Nio shares held by institutional investors dropped over 61%.
In the third quarter, however, institutional interest in Nio jumped as the stock more than doubled — then losing part of those gains in the final months of the year.
As of Friday, according to Nasdaq, a total of 476 institutional investors held over 309 million shares combined.
Several key institutions have yet to disclose their quarterly portfolios, however.
Nio‘s largest institutional shareholder as of the end of the third quarter, following its backer CYVN Holdings, is Aspex Management.
The Hong Kong-based hedge fund that purchased 35 million shares between July and September, returning to the company for the first time in nearly three years.
UBS, which filed its fourth-quarter update late last month, held 24.5 million shares in the EV maker by the end of 2025, a 14.7% sequential decrease.
WT Asset Management also returned to the stock between July and September, purchasing over $18.6 million shares after having exited its position in the automaker in late 2021.
In the final months of the year, however, it slashed its position by 32.3%, selling 6 million shares.
