LexinFintech, the China-based operator of consumer finance platform Fenqile, filed on Monday for a $500m initial public offering that will enable media group Bertelsmann and e-commerce company JD.com to exit.
The company intends to float on the Nasdaq Global Market in the US, and Goldman Sachs (Asia), Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Deutsche Bank Securities and China Renaissance Securities are the underwriters for the offering.
Founded in 2013 as Shenzhen Fenqile Network Technology, LexinFintech runs an online lending service that specialises in instalment and instalment purchase loans linked to its e-commerce platform, the funds being supplied by a range of sources including its online investment platform.
The company, which had 3.3 million active customers as of the end of September this year, generated a $21m profit for the first nine months of 2017 from $599m in revenue.
The IPO will come after a $235m series C round in June 2016 co-led by investment bank China Renaissance Partners’ Huasheng Capital unit and venture capital fund CoBuilder Partners, which in turn followed an undisclosed amount invested by JD.com the year before.
Investment firm DST Global led LexinFintech’s $100m series B round in 2014, investing alongside Bertelsmann subsidiary Bertelsmann Asia Investments (BAI), China Renaissance, K2 Ventures and Matrix Partners China, the VC firm that had contributed to the $10m the company had already raised.
BAI holds a share in LexinFintech sized at under 5%, but JD.com’s Asia Pacific Investment unit owns an 11.9% stake. The company’s largest shareholder is Installment Payment Investment, a vehicle for its CEO, Jay Wenjie Xiao.
Other notable investors in LexinFintech include K2 Partners (15.3%), Matrix Partners China (12%), Magic Peak Investments, a subsidiary of insurance provider Taikang Insurance (6%), and Apoletto Asia, a fund backed by DST Global founder Yuri Milner (6%).