LexinFintech, the China-based e-commerce finance company backed by media group Bertelsmann and e-commerce firm JD.com, raised $108m yesterday when it floated in the US.
The company issued 12 million American depositary shares (ADSs) priced at $9.00 each on the Nasdaq Global Market, at the bottom of the IPO’s $9 to $11 range. It had initially set a $500m target when it filed for the offering in mid-November this year.
Founded in 2013, LexinFintech is the operator of Fenqile, an online service that offers instalment loans that allow consumers to buy products from its e-commerce platform and pay for them gradually over a period of time.
The company made a $21m net profit in the first nine months of 2017 from $599m in revenue, a period when it had 3.3 million active customers.
JD.com’s Asia Pacific Investment fund held an 11.9% stake in the company pre-IPO and bought $4.5m of shares in the offering to come out with 11.4%. It invested an undisclosed amount in LexinFintech in 2015 when they formed a strategic partnership.
Bertelsmann unit Bertelsmann Asia Investments (BAI) joined DST Global, China Renaissance K2 Ventures, and Matrix Partners China for LexinFintech’s $100m series B round in 2014, which followed a seed round of undisclosed size and $10m of series A funding.
Huasheng Capital, a subsidiary of China Renaissance Partners, subsequently co-led a $235m round for the company in June 2016 with venture capital fund CoBuilder Partners.
BAI’s stake in LexinFintech is sized at under 5%, but K2 invested $2.7m in the offering and has a 14.4% stake post-IPO, while Matrix has 11.1%. Magic Peak Investments, a vehicle for insurance provider Taikang, has 6.1% and Apoletto Asia, a fund backed by DST founder Yuri Milner, 5.6%.
Goldman Sachs (Asia), BofA Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank Securities and China Renaissance are lead bookrunners for the IPO while ICBC International is co-manager.
The underwriters have a 30-day option to buy a further 1.8 million ADSs, boosting the size of the offering to $124m. LexinFintech’s shares opened at $11.80 on its first day of trading yesterday but finished at $10.70.