Lufax, a Shanghai-based online wealth management platform owned by
Ping An Insurance Group, is seeking a valuation of US$60 billion in its initial public offering (IPO) in April.
The company is expected to file a listing application by the end of January, according to sources cited by
South China Morning Post.
One source added that Lufax aims to sell US$6 billion to US$9 billion worth of shares in the planned listing in April, representing 10-15% of its total valuation.
During a funding round in early 2016, in which it raised US$1.2 billion, Lufax was valued at US$18.5 billion. This means that if Lufax is indeed valued at US$60 billion, it was able to more than triple its value in less than a year.
It is likely that Lufax’s IPO will eclipse another mega fintech offering – that of ZhongAn Online Property & Casualty Insurance which raised US$1.5 billion in a Hong Kong IPO in September 2017 at a valuation of US$13 billion. This could make Lufax the second most valuable fintech company in China, following Alibaba’s Ant Financial, which was valued at $75 billion by CLSA in 2016.
In September, Lufax named investment banks Citic Securities, Citigroup, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs as joint sponsors for the public offering, Reuters reported.
Ping An established Lufax, which is short for Shanghai Lujiazui International Financial Asset Exchange, in 2011. It initially offered peer-to-peer lending services, then later branched out to other financial services such as providing risk management expertise and financial assets trading information.
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