By Daniel Lanyon on Wednesday 17 January 2018
Fintech has long been a preserve of private markets but many think we are set for a wave of public stock market listings.
Lufax, a Hong-Kong based p2p lender and digital wealth manager, is eyeing an April stock market listing, according to several media reports.
The firm, which is estimated to be one of the largest fintechs in the world, has several operations across several financial niches including China's largest P2P lending platform. It is owned by Ping An, which is an established insurance company.
Several media reports including Business Insider, Reuters, and The South China Morning Post have cited Citic Securities, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as all acting as joint sponsors on the deal.
The South China Morning Post has also, quoting unnamed sources, suggested 28 April as the likely date of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) with a $60bn valuation at listing price. This would mean a more than tripling of its last valuation in 2016 when it raised money in a private funding round.
The same sources suggested the firm would seek to sell 15 per cent of its shares, raising about $9bn.
A fintech listing of this magnitude may well be of interest to a new fleet of investors including those focused on both emerging and global equity markets. Other Asian tech-oriented firms such as Tencent and Alibaba have seen their share prices soar after public listings, although this has in the latter case occurred in New York.
21 March 2023
Daniel Lanyon