Offshore Trust Insight | PONY-W (02026.HK) closes down more than 7%; Jun Peng controls about 51.5% of voting power through irrevocable trusts

On 22 October 2026, Hong Kong equities opened higher and pared gains, with the Hang Seng Index closing down 679 points, or 2.9%, at 22,971 and the Hang Seng TECH Index down 185 points, or 4.6%, at 3,809, as the new energy vehicle and autonomous driving supply chains pulled back together and PONY-W (02026.HK) slipped intraday. As of the close, the company was quoted at HKD 37.260, down 8.00%.

PONY-W was listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 6 November 2025 as an overseas listing entity incorporated in the Cayman Islands that adopts a weighted voting rights structure, with a simultaneous dual primary listing on Nasdaq under the ticker PONY; the Global Offering comprised 48,249,000 Offer Shares, of which 4,195,600 were Hong Kong Offer Shares and 44,053,400 were International Offer Shares, at a final offer price of HKD 139.00, generating gross proceeds of HKD 6.707 billion and net proceeds of HKD 6.454 billion.

On offshore trusts, the company's Allotment Results Announcement shows that the Class B ordinary shares are held by Dr. Jun Peng himself, the Alicia Peng Irrevocable Trust, the Selena Peng Irrevocable Trust and a voting trust; Dr. Peng and his spouse are the settlors of the first two irrevocable trusts, members of the Peng family are their beneficiaries, and both trusts are controlled by Dr. Peng as sole investment advisor, giving him the right to direct the exercise of any voting and other rights attached to the trust funds, including the Class B ordinary shares held thereunder; the voting trust was established by Dr. Peng as its sole trustee, with Dr. Peng and members of his family as beneficiaries. According to the company's shareholding filings submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the trustee of the two irrevocable trusts is Juan Xu.

According to the company's 2026 interim report, Dr. Peng holds 43,988,000 Class B ordinary shares, approximately 54.25% of that class, with the nature of the interest being beneficial owner, and separately holds 2,022,000 Class B ordinary shares, approximately 2.49%, in the capacity of trust founder and 13,990,000 Class B ordinary shares, approximately 17.25%, in the capacity of trustee; the "WVR Beneficiaries" section of the same report states that Dr. Peng controls an aggregate of 60,000,000 Class B ordinary shares, corresponding to approximately 51.54% of the voting power. Accordingly, 16,012,000 of the Class B ordinary shares in Dr. Peng's interest are held through the two irrevocable trusts and the voting trust described above and fall within the scope of offshore family trusts. The other settlor is Dr. Tiancheng Lou, who, as the same section of the interim report shows, holds 19,068,770 Class B ordinary shares through IWAY LLC, a company he wholly owns, and separately holds 2,020,000 Class B ordinary shares in the capacity of trust founder, with those shares held by South Dakota Trust Company LLC as trustee of the Amber Luna Lou Irrevocable Trust controlled by Dr. Lou; Dr. Peng and Dr. Lou, the two WVR beneficiaries, together control approximately 69.67% of the voting power.

On trading eligibility, the Hang Seng Indexes Company announced on 13 February 2026, in the quarterly review of the Hang Seng Index series as at 31 December 2025, that PONY-W would be included in the Hang Seng Composite Index, with the changes taking effect after the close on 6 March 2026 and from 9 March; on 4 June 2026, the company's Class A ordinary shares were added to the eligible securities lists for both the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect. Under the Stock Connect rules, a company with weighted voting rights must have been listed for at least six months on its first inclusion; the company has been listed for more than six months and also meets the market capitalisation and liquidity requirements.

On 24 July 2026, the Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration jointly issued the Announcement on Individual Income Tax Related to Offshore Trusts (Announcement No. 21 of 2026), bringing the establishment, subsistence and termination of offshore trusts into the individual income tax administration framework throughout their full life cycle, establishing three look-through points of establishment, subsistence and termination, and applying a unified 20% tax rate. During the subsistence period, income generated by a resident individual's offshore trust and by overseas entities held or controlled by that trust is, whether or not actually distributed, taxed with the resident individual as the taxpayer, requiring annual filing and payment of individual income tax. Article 6 of the Announcement provides that where a resident individual becomes a non-resident individual during the subsistence of an offshore trust, the taxable income shall be the balance obtained by deducting the original cost from the market value of the offshore trust property as at the date on which the individual became a non-resident; the 90-day window for supplementary declaration set under the Announcement runs from 24 July 2026.

One broker's research report notes that the company continues to expand its Robotaxi fleet in China and overseas markets, maintaining its target of a fleet size of 3,500 vehicles by the end of 2026, having recently launched commercial Robotaxi operations in Doha and conducted fully driverless Robotaxi trial rides in Zagreb; the fourth-generation Robotruck was launched on the GAC T9 pure electric heavy truck platform, with the bill of materials for its autonomous driving kit 70% lower than the previous generation, which helps reduce transportation cost per kilometre; the broker maintained its Buy rating but cut its net loss forecasts for 2027 to 2029 and lowered its earnings forecasts for 2027 to 2029 and 2030 to 2032, on account of downward revisions to revenue and gross margin assumptions.