WT Asset Management, which manages around $4 billion and is one of the top investment firms in Asia, has made a major comeback to Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio‘s stock in the third quarter.
The Hong Kong and Beijing-headquartered hedge fund manager first acquired shares in Nio in the second quarter of 2020, buying 2.54 million shares.
Amid a major EV bubble in which other Chinese carmakers such as XPeng and Li Auto also saw their US-listed shares reach all-time highs that remain until today.
Exactly five years ago, WT dumped 58% of its stake before exiting it completely in the final months of 2020.
The firm returned to the EV stock in late 2021 by buying more than 2.44 million shares but sold them in the following quarter.
Since early 2022, the hedge fund manager had never held any Nio shares again.
WT’s return comes as Nio saw its stock price more than double in the third quarter.
US-listed shares closed at $3.43 on the last day of the second quarter and at $7.21 on the last day of the third quarter, representing a 110% increase.
As seen with the few institutions that have already filed their portfolio updates with the SEC, the surge in stock price has brought increased share acquisitions by institutional investors.
Although most institutions have not yet reported their third quarter portfolio updates, Nio has already seen major changes among its top institutional investors.
Other Major Investors Return
As reported on Monday, London-based RWC Asset Management also returned to Nio shares and currently ranks as the company’s third-largest institutional investor.
The UK-based investment manager acquired 10,467,320 shares in the electric vehicle maker in the third quarter of 2025, marking its return to the stock nearly five years after exiting its position.
RWC has jumped directly to the top of Nio‘s institutional shareholders, trailing only UBS and WT.
Morgan Stanley held 10.1 million shares as of the end of the second quarter and has not yet reported the third quarter update.
JPMorgan Chase trimmed its stake in the EV maker by 30% in the third quarter and ended September holding 3.45 million shares.
According to Fintel, Nio currently has a total of 444 institutional shareholders holding more than 202.8 million shares.
Institutional Ownership
Despite recent gains, the broader trend shows declining institutional interest.
According to data from Chinese trading platform MooMoo, the ratio of institutional ownership peaked in 2019 at more than 40% and has since more than halved to 15.46% as of the end of September.
Nio saw its stock soar almost 5,000% from October 2019 to January 2021 to around $67, driven by a rally in EV shares and a broader post-pandemic market rebound.
Since then, institutional ownership has dropped from nearly 600 million shares in early 2022 — when the stock traded in the $15-$25 range — to 202 million as of Tuesday.
CYVN Holdings
Abu Dhabi’s sovereign fund, CYVN Holdings, is Nio‘s largest shareholder with a 21.7% stake.
The position was built through a pair of transactions totaling $2.94 billion in 2023.
In December 2023, CYVN completed a $2.2 billion investment in Nio (294 million newly issued shares), following an earlier agreement in June 2023 to invest approximately $738.5 million.
