BEIJING: Lufax Holding Ltd, one of China’s largest online wealth management platforms, is looking to raise between 2.013 billion and 2.363 billion U.S. dollars in a New York Stock Exchange listing that would make it the largest fintech initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S. this year.
The company plans to issue 175 million American depositary shares (ADS) for 11.50 dollars to 13.50 dollars each in an updated filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. Two ADSs represent one ordinary share.
Lufax, backed by financial giant Ping An Insurance Group, submitted its filing earlier this month.
Set up in 2011 as a peer-to-peer platform, the company now operates in China’s retail credit and wealth management industries.
The company’s prospectus revealed that funds will be mainly used to beef up technology through infrastructure construction, research and development, investment or acquisitions.
Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities, UBS Investment Bank, HSBC and China PA Securities are the lead underwriters for Lufax’s offering.
Lufax was valued at 38 billion dollars before its latest fundraising in 2018.
Its IPO follows the listing of OneConnect Financial Technology, another fintech company backed by Ping An, which raised 312 million dollars in December 2019.
Lufax’s listing comes against the backdrop of a number of Chinese companies looking to reconsider their listings on U.S. exchanges amid rising U.S.-China tensions.
The U.S. Senate in May passed a bill that could force Chinese companies to delist if they do not meet U.S. accounting standards. Since then, a number of Chinese companies have opted out of U.S. stock exchanges to pursue go-private deals or return to equity markets closer to home.
However, Bloomberg data showed that Chinese mainland and Hong Kong companies have raised a combined 10.9 billion dollars through U.S. IPOs this year, the highest since 2014. –Agencies
