Decreased venture capital funding and fintech challenges in 2016 slowed the market for initial public offerings (IPOs); experts believe the IPO market could be revived in 2017 with four companies at the top of the list to watch for a potential public offering; companies include Transferwise, SoFi, Ant Financial and Credit Karma; all four companies have significant venture capital support and are likely leaders for the fintech IPO market in 2017. Source
Jianpu Technology, a subsidiary of Rong360, has filed for a $200mn IPO in the US; Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan are bookrunners for the deal; Jianpu is an open recommendation platform for loan and credit card applications; the company has seen revenue jump 112 percent from 2015 to 2016 and thus far in the first six months of 2017 revenue has jumped 170 percent year on year. Source.
Recent IPO filings by some Chinese unicorns has revealed companies who misrepresented the amount they raised in venture funding; Jianpu Technology is reported to have inflated their capital raising's and Qudian is under pressure for potentially disclosing incorrect bad-loan ratios; Chinese regulators have begun looking more closely at consumer lenders and the recent surge in potential IPOs might take a hit with the bad news trend. Source.
Chinese online consumer lender, LexinFintech, filed a $500mn IPO to list on the Nasdaq; LexinFintech provides installment loans for consumers to buy products; regulators have been looking closer at consumer lending in China with recent companies listing on US exchanges; the listing is being underwritten by Goldman Sachs, BofA Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank Securities and China Renaissance. Source.
One of China’s leading online wealth management companies Lufax is looking to go public in Hong Kong at a $60bn valuation; the South China Morning Post reports the company intends to file their application by the end of January; Lufax was last valued at $18bn in 2016, they have more than 33 million users and over $75bn in assets under management. Source.
Shares of Qudian surged almost 48 percent on the first day of trading; the share offering raised about $900mn, making it the largest Chinese listing in the US this year; reaching as high as $35.45 the company ended the day at $29.86; Qudian extends loans to millennials and students for small ticket items like smartphones or concert tickets. Source.
Recent news about Chinese online lenders has caused regulators in China to begin looking at new regulations for the industry; “The public has doubts about its operating model and has appealed for it to be brought under regulation,” said Ji Zhihong, head of financial markets department at the People’s Bank of China, according to the FT; the potential regulations could hurt what has become a hot IPO market; Chinese lenders like Qudian who recently did a US based IPO and Paipaidai, Hexindai and Lexin Fintech who all have filed for potential US IPOs. Source.
Yixin Group Ltd., a Chinese online car lender, filed for a Hong Kong IPO looking to raise $900mn; the deal could value the fintech company at $6.5bn if shares price on the higher end; Yixin Group Ltd. is a unit of NY listed Bitauto and is backed by Baidu Inc., Tencent Holdings Ltd. and JD.com Inc. Source.
LexinFintech Holdings operates Fenqile, a leading online lender in China, and is now rethinking their IPO plans; LexinFintech is attempting to raise $500mn through their IPO but concerns about regulators in China have made the company have second thoughts; the company is planning to come to a decision soon on whether or not to plan their roadshow ahead of the IPO. Source.
Alibaba announced it was taking a 33 percent stake in their fintech affiliate Ant Financial; the agreement allows for Alibaba to pick of shares of Ant Financial and also ends the revenue share agreement they had in place; TechCrunch reports the deal was focused on “certain intellectual property rights owned by Alibaba exclusively related to Ant Financial.”; Alibaba saw their shares drop after the announcement and many think this is a prelude to Ant Financial’s IPO. Source.