Lufax, the China-based personal finance platform launched and spun off by insurer Ping An, filed for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday with a $100m target.
Founded in 2011, Lufax has evolved from a peer-to-peer lending marketplace to a more diversified service that includes small businesses as well as wealth management services.
The company increased its net income slightly year on year to more than $3.63bn in the first six months of this year, though its profit fell slightly to just over $1bn in the same period.
Lufax was valued at $39.3bn in its last funding round, in late 2018, when it raised $1.33bn in a round co-led by SBI and backed by fellow financial services providers UBS, JP Morgan, Macquarie Group, UOB and Goldman Sachs, the latter through its Private Equity Group.
The round was co-led by Primavera Capital, All-Stars Investment and Qatar Investment Authority and also featured Hedosophia, Hermitage Capital and LionRock Capital
Ping An was joined by financial services group Bank of China, food producer Cofco, investment bank Guotai Junan and Minsheng Shangyin International in a $1.22bn series B round at an $18.5bn valuation two years earlier.
BlackPine Private Equity Partners, CDH Investments and China International Capital had already supplied $500m in a 2015 series A round that valued Lufax at $10bn.
Ping An retains a 42.3% stake in the company, with 42.7% being held by Tun Kung Company, a holding vehicle whose backers include several senior Ping An employees.
BofA Securities, UBS Securities, HSBC Securities (USA), China PA Securities (Hong Kong), Morgan Stanley, CLSA and Jefferies have been hired as the underwriters for the IPO.
