Softbank-backed fintech Oneconnect chooses New York over Hong Kong for IPO

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A view of the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on September 16, 2008 just after the opening bell. Global stock markets went into a dizzying fall Monday as the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers sparked fears that more bad news is on the horizon for the finance sector and the economy. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled below 11,000 with a slide of 4.42 percent to 10,917.51, its largest one-day point loss since the reopening after the September 2001 terrorist attacks. The Nasdaq composite plummeted 3.60 percent to 2,179.91 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index skidded 4.71 percent to 1,192.70. AFP PHOTO/Stan HONDA (Photo credit should read STAN HONDA/AFP via Getty Images)

Oneconnect, the fintech arm of Chinese financial conglomerate Ping An, has chosen New York over Hong Kong for the launch of its initial public offering (IPO).

The company, which is backed by Softbank, filed a prospectus for an IPO on Wednesday and plans to list its shares on NASDAQ.

Read more: Alibaba poised to launch record-breaking $13.4bn Hong Kong listing

The filing lists a target raise of $100m (£78m), but one banker involved told the Financial Times the figure was a placeholder amount and was likely to change.

Softbank led a funding round last year that valued Oneconnect, which provides technology solutions to small and medium-sized financial institutions, at $7.5bn.

Ping An, China’s biggest insurer by market value, has launched a series of startups focused on areas including medicine, fintech and AI in recent years.

Its healthcare startup Ping An Good Doctor, which is also backed by Softbank, raised $1.1bn in its Hong Kong IPO in May last year.

It is understood that Oneconnect opted to list in New York instead of Hong Kong in the hope of achieving a higher valuation.

A series of major Chinese tech firms have chosen to list in Hong Kong recently. Online retail giant Alibaba launched the share sale for its secondary listing in the city yesterday, which is expected to raise up to $13.4bn.

Bydedance, the group behind short-form video app Tiktok, is also thought to be considering an IPO in Hong Kong.

Read more: Tiktok owner Bytedance denies having immediate plans for Hong Kong listing

Oneconnect’s US offering is being led by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Ping An of China Securities.

Regulatory filings show the fintech reported an operating loss of $156m in the nine months to the end of September.

City PM has contacted Ping An for comment.

Main image credit: Getty