Ping An’s OneConnect Financial Files for IPO Amid U.S. Lull
Ping An’s OneConnect Financial Files for IPO Amid U.S. Lull
(Bloomberg) -- China-based cloud fintech platform OneConnect Financial Technology Co. filed for an initial public offering in a listing that could help buoy the sagging market for new U.S. listings.
The company, one of several Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. businesses backed by SoftBank Group Corp., listed its offering size as $100 million in a filing Wednesday. That’s typically a placeholder that may change.
OneConnect opted for a New York listing despite U.S.-China tensions. The company earlier considered a Hong Kong listing with a target of raising about $1 billion at a valuation of about $8 billion, Bloomberg reported in February.
OneConnect’s filing follows this year’s surge of U.S. IPOs that peaked with Uber Technologies Inc.’s $8.1 billion offering in May. Twenty listings in October raised $2.41 billion, though plans for several big listings were scrapped or delayed, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The year’s U.S. listings -- 158 raising more than $47 billion combined -- have included 24 by China- and Hong Kong-based companies that accounted $3.05 billion that total. Only three of those companies are currently trading above their offer price, the data show.
SoftBank’s Struggles
OneConnect, backed by SoftBank’s Vision Fund, provides technology solutions that help increase revenue and manage risks for small and midsize financial institutions in China.
SoftBank has placed bets on companies under the state-linked insurer Ping An, as part of its play in combining technology and insurance. Last year, Vision Fund invested in Ping An Good Doctor and Ping An Healthcare Technology.
SoftBank’s dealmaking prowess is being questioned after WeWork abandoned plans for an IPO of as much as $3.5 billion and the uncertain path to profitability for some other of its portfolio companies, including Didi Chuxing.
WeWork’s troubles shouldn’t affect OneConnect’s plan for a public listing or its valuation, Ping An co-Chief Executive Officer Jessica Tan said in an interview Sunday, citing potential demand for enterprise technology services in China.
Loss Grows
OneConnect had a net loss of $147 million on revenue of $218 million during the nine months ended Sept. 30, compared with an $82 million net loss on revenue of $128 million for the same period last year, the filing shows. Since 2017, Ping An Group has extended to OneConnect more than $1 billion in loans with interest rates ranging from 4.55% to 7.3%.
The offering is being led by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Ping An Securities Group Holdings Ltd. OneConnect said in the filing that it plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol OCFT.
To contact the reporters on this story: Crystal Tse in New York at ctse44@bloomberg.net;Yueqi Yang in New York at yyang492@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Liana Baker at lbaker75@bloomberg.net, ;Polina Noskova at pnoskova@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha, Matthew Monks
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