Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd, the top maker of batteries for electric vehicles, won the approval from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to proceed with a listing in the city that may fetch at least $5 billion, which may be the world’s biggest such offering this year.

The Ningde, the Chinese mainland-based company, on Thursday secured approval from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, a CATL spokesman said, confirming an earlier International Financing Review (IFR) report. The listing could come as early as May, according to IFR.

The approval clears the way for the mainland company and its bankers to start arranging meetings soon with investors to gauge demand for the stock and determine details of the deal such as pricing. Given its scale, the offering’s success will likely influence investor confidence in the mainland and HKSAR companies.

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At $5 billion, CATL’s float would be the world’s biggest this year. It would also be the HKSAR’s largest listing since Kuaishou Technology Co's IPO in 2021.

Second floats of the mainland-listed firms like that of CATL are among the deals powering stock offerings in the HKSAR this year. CATL’s shares had fallen 18 percent this year in Shenzhen as of Thursday.

The approval comes weeks after the nation’s securities regulator cleared CATL’s plans for the listing in the SAR.