Chinese Wealth Management Platform Lufax Files For US IPO

Lufax Holding Ltd, one of China’s largest online wealth management platform, on Wednesday filed to list its shares in the United States, the latest company looking to take advantage of a rebound in capital markets.

Lufax, backed by financial giant Ping An Insurance Group, did not disclose the size of its offering but set a placeholder amount of $100 million.

It is looking to list its American depositary shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “LU”, Lufax said in a filing.

Lufax was valued at $38 billion before its latest fundraising in 2018, Reuters reported at the time.

The company’s filing follows the listing of OneConnect Financial Technology, another fintech company backed by Ping An, which raised $312 million in December 2019.

It also 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.

Set up in 2011 as a P2P platform by Ping An, Lufax has, however, been exiting the once core business as China cracked down on the sector to contain financial risks.

Lufax postponed a Hong Kong listing slated for the first half of 2018 amid uncertainty over China’s consumer lending regulation.

The company posted a net profit of 7.27 billion yuan ($1.07 billion) for the six months ended June 30, compared with 7.48 billion yuan a year earlier.

Net interest income during the same period rose 38% to 2.99 billion yuan.

Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities, UBS Investment Bank, HSBC and China PA Securities are the lead underwriters to the company’s offering.

Reuters