Chinese vaping device manufacturer Smoore International has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong, more than a month after Beijing issued a notice urging the industry to stop selling and advertising electronic cigarettes online.

The heavily redacted prospectus, which was filed Thursday, did not give details of the IPO or indicate how much capital Smoore seeks to raise. However, it did say that the money will be used to expand production capacity, automate production, increase investment in research and development, and acquire promising firms for future growth.

In addition to producing closed-system vaping devices and vaping components for tobacco and vaping firms across the world, Smoore also sells self-branded open-system vaping devices direct to retail clients. Closed-system vaping devices refer to devices consisting of cartridges and batteries, while open-system vaping devices refer to those such as tanks that allow consumers to refill themselves.

The company also said that it does not operate any retail stores or online platforms for the direct sales of its self-branded electronic cigarette products to consumers. All self-branded products are sold to distributors, it added.

In the first half of 2019, the U.S. remained Smoore’s biggest market, with revenue derived from the country accounting for 30.5% of the company’s total, according to the filing. Its next-largest market is Hong Kong, which contributed 20.3% of Smoore’s total revenue in the period.

The IPO application comes after China’s regulators published a notice in November asking e-commerce platforms to shut down all online stores selling e-cigarettes in order to protect the physical and mental health of minors. Other national governments and states in the U.S. have issued similar bans.

E-cigarette sales in China increased by 175% to 11 billion yuan ($1.57 billion) in 2019, outpacing growth in the global market and making China the world’s fifth-largest e-cigarette market.

Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com)

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