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EHang had been seeking between $400 million and $500 million
from a U.S. IPO this year, sources told Reuters previously.
Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley have been working on the
offering.
The five-year old company has decided to put off those plans as
it is not ready to go public, the sources said. It drew lukewarm
investor interest, added one of them.
EHang did not respond to a request for comment. Credit Suisse
and Morgan Stanley declined to comment.
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Guangzhou province, EHang
first made headlines in 2016 when it unveiled a passenger drone
concept which it said would retail at up to $300,000.
Early last year it said it had completed tests for the vehicle
which is capable of carrying one person at speeds of up to 130
kph.
In May EHang broke the Guinness World Record for most drones
flown simultaneously in a 13-minute flight that involved 1,374
drones spread over a kilometer.
China has championed rapid development in its tech sector in a
bid to build world-leading firms and reduce dependence on
foreign products including semiconductors, robots and drones.
EHang specializes in aerial landscaping. In consumer drones it
is dwarfed by fellow Chinese drone maker SZ DJI Technology Co
Ltd, which is the world's largest maker of non-military drones
and plans to list in either Hong Kong or mainland China, people
familiar with the matter told Reuters last year.
The global market for drones was expected to reach $9 billion
last year and is forecast by research firm IDC to grow at a
compound annual growth rate of 30 percent in the next five
years. IDC also estimates that more than half of that spending
will be on drones for commercial use.
(Reporting by Julie Zhu and Julia Fioretti; Editing by Jennifer
Hughes and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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