China-based finance provider Weidai filed on Friday to raise up to $100m in an initial public offering in the US that will enable several corporates to exit.
Founded in 2011, Weidai offers loans to customers which use their cars as collateral. Unlike lenders who physically take vehicles into custody, it takes details of the user registration in conjunction with a global positioning-based tracking system it installs.
The company operates almost 520 service centres across 300 Chinese cities, and made almost $46.5m in net income in the first half of 2018 from about $285m in revenue.
Weidai’s largest shareholder is founder, chairman and CEO Hong Yao, who owns 73.3% of the company, but smart city technology provider Hakim Unique has a 15.2% share, having led Weidai’s $24m series B round in 2015.
Online game and e-book publisher Shanda had reportedly provided RMB100m in funding for the company in 2014 (RMB100m = $16.3m at contemporary rates).
The company raised a further $153m in a mid-2016 series C round led by private equity fund Vision Knight Capital that included home decoration services group Dong Yi Ri Sheng.
Morgan Stanley International, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) and Citigroup Global Markets have been appointed underwriters for the offering, which is set to take place on the New York Stock Exchange.