China-based digital brokerage operator Futu has filed to raise up to $300m in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market that would enable internet group Tencent to exit.
Futu runs an online brokerage platform equipped with market news and data as well as analytics tools, and brokered almost $87bn in trades for its users in the first nine months of 2018.
The service had 5.3 million users at the end of the same period, almost 460,000 of which had opened trading accounts on Futu, while more than 120,000 were paying clients.
The company received an undisclosed eight-figure renminbi amount (RMB10m = $1.5m) of series A funding from Tencent, Matrix Partners China and Sequoia Capital China in 2014 and $60m from the same investors in a 2015 series B round.
Futu subsequently added $146m in a June 2017 series C round led by Tencent and backed by Matrix Partners China and Sequoia China that reportedly valued it at more than $1bn. Reports last month suggested it could seek a $2.5bn valuation in a $500m offering.
Tencent holds 38.2% of the company, whose largest shareholder – founder, chairman and CEO Leaf Hua Li – owns a 51.7% stake. Matrix Partners China owns 6.1% and Sequoia China 4%.
Goldman Sachs (Asia), UBS Securities and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) have been appointed underwriters for the offering.
