Offshore Trust Insight | WERIDE-W (00800.HK) up 0.75% intraday; Dr. Han and Dr. Li control about 39.4% of the voting power through family trusts

NewTimeSpace News: On 23 October 2026, Hong Kong equities opened higher, with the Hang Seng Index at 23,014.04 points, up 0.35%, and the Hang Seng TECH Index up 0.51% at 3,813.43 points, and WERIDE-W (00800.HK) edged up intraday. As of 11:25, the company was quoted at HKD 10.720, up 0.75%.

WERIDE-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 WRD. Total revenue for the first half of 2026 was RMB 345.9 million, up 73.3% year on year; gross profit was RMB 126.5 million, up 107.1%, with gross margin rising from 30.6% a year earlier to 36.6%, mainly attributable to a higher revenue contribution from the higher-margin L2++/L3 business and the overseas L4 business. The loss for the period was RMB 789.8 million, broadly flat against RMB 791.5 million in the same period of the prior year.

On offshore trusts, according to the company's 2026 interim report, the WVR Beneficiaries are Dr. Han and Dr. Li, who hold the company's Class A and Class B ordinary shares through XHL, THL, Humber Partners and Yanli; XHL is owned as to 80% by Dr. Han and 20% by Trident, THL is owned as to 51% by XHL and 49% by Trident, Humber Partners is owned as to 80% by Dr. Li and 20% by Trident, and Yanli is owned as to 51% by Humber Partners and 49% by Trident; Trident is the trustee of both the Han Family Trust and the Li Family Trust, Dr. Han is the protector of the Han Family Trust with his children and descendants as beneficiaries, and Dr. Li is the protector of the Li Family Trust with his children and descendants as beneficiaries, and accordingly the two are deemed under the SFO to be interested in the shares held by the above intermediate entities.

In the same interim report, Dr. Han is stated to hold 41,249,590 Class B ordinary shares, approximately 75.25% of that class, in the capacity of interest in controlled corporations, and is separately entitled to 27,595,520 Class A ordinary shares under share options granted under the 2018 Share Plan; Dr. Li is stated to hold 27,129,666 Class A ordinary shares, approximately 2.79%, and 13,564,833 Class B ordinary shares, approximately 24.75%, in the capacity of interest in controlled corporations, and is separately entitled to 10,513,974 Class A ordinary shares under share options granted under the 2018 Share Plan. The Corporate Governance section of the same report further states that the two control an aggregate of 27,129,666 Class A ordinary shares and 54,814,423 Class B ordinary shares, representing approximately 8.30% of the Company's issued share capital and approximately 39.44% of the voting power (excluding Reserved Matters). Accordingly, 16,012,000 Class A ordinary shares and 54,814,423 Class B ordinary shares of Dr. Han's and Dr. Li's interests are held through entities within the family trust structures and fall within the scope of offshore family trusts. The establishment dates and governing laws of the two family trusts have not been disclosed.

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 WERIDE-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.

On corporate governance, one broker's research report notes that the commercialisation of autonomous driving in China is accelerating, that the broker favours companies with a leading position in L4 commercialisation, and that BYD's full-stack in-house advanced driver assistance system extending into the mass market is expected to raise consumer awareness of and willingness to pay for autonomous driving, accelerating the commercialisation of the industry; the broker maintains a Buy rating on the company. Another broker's research report notes that it has opened a 90-day upside catalyst watch on the company, with considerations including a potential first-quarter funding round by a peer and the implied valuation potentially reassessing the Company's valuation, strengthened investor confidence in the Company's inclusion in the Stock Connect, the rivalry between China and the United States in technology potentially prompting China to adopt more proactive autonomous driving policies, and the sound development of the asset-light business.