A Charlotte company that buys upscale cars in the United States and then sells them primarily to customers in China has filed for an initial public offering.
Cheetah Net Supply Chain Service plans to sell 1.25 million shares at a price between $4 and $6 a share, raising about $5 million after expenses. The company says it will use the money for working capital and to develop its warehousing and logistics services.
In 2022, the company sold 463 cars at an average price of $119,112, generating $55.2 million in revenue. The revenue was up 40.7% from $39.2 million in 2021, when it sold 387 cars at an average price of $101,302.
In the first three months of 2023, the company sold 82 cars at an average price of $124,566, generating $10.2 million in revenue. However, Cheetah Net reported a loss of $107,933 during the quarter.
The company primarily sells BMWs, Porsches, Mercedes and Lexus vehicles. In the first three months of 2023, its most popular car was the Mercedes GLS 450, of which it sold 26. That is an SUV with a manufacturer’s recommended sales price of about $82,000, according to Mercedes.
The CEO of the company is Huan Liu, who receives a base salary of $72,000. He also owns all of the company’s Class B stock and will have a majority of the voting shares after the IPO.
Cheetah Net said in the filing that its business could be affected by the “increasingly strained relationship between the U.S. and China” as well as the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine. It also noted that its vehicles are cheaper than the same cars purchased in China, but if the manufacturers decided to lower their prices in Asia, its business could be hurt.
In 2022, China sales accounted for 93.1% of the company’s revenue. In the same year, its three largest customers accounted for 25.7% of its revenue.
The company plans to trade on the Nasdaq using the ticker symbol CTNT.
The filing can be found here.