Alibaba-backed Chinese online micro-credit service provider Qudian has just raised around $900 million in an IPO in New York on Wednesday. Its American depositary shares were priced at $24 each, above the marketed range of $19-$22. The price is believed to be higher than expected, demonstrating US investors’ huge interest in burgeoning Chinese companies.
Qudian, backed by Alibaba’s affiliate Ant Financial, runs a service that allows young Chinese—mostly college students or white-collar workers—to buy consumer electronics in monthly installments. In 2015, Qudian reached a strategic cooperation agreement with Alipay, where the mini-credit company set up its service in the Alipay app to draw in more users.
The IPO from Qudian is said to be the largest-ever US listing from a Chinese fintech company. At the IPO price, Qudian’s market value is estimated at about $7.9 billion.
According to the company’s IPO prospectus, as of the second quarter of 2017, Qudian has had 47.9 million registered users with monthly active users (MAU) reaching 28.9 million people, local media reports. Also, the firm has provided $5.6 billion of credit in the first two quarters of 2017 to 7 million active borrowers. On top of that, the number of active loan borrowers has reached 5.58 million with a 55.9% growth over the past eight quarters.
Qudian said it plans to leverage the proceeds to launch more marketing campaigns to draw in more borrowers and potential acquisitions, Reuters reports.