Qudian announces $100m share repurchase program

Qudian Inc, an online small consumer credit provider in China, plans to repurchase within the next 12 months up to $100 million worth of its outstanding American depositary shares representing its Class A ordinary shares. [Photo/VCG]

Qudian Inc, an online small consumer credit provider in China, plans to repurchase within the next 12 months up to $100 million worth of its outstanding American depositary shares representing its Class A ordinary shares, the company announced Tuesday.

Various means, such as open market transactions, privately negotiated transactions, tender offers or any portfolio combination, may be used to purchase an ADS and the number and timing of repurchases will depend on factors including price, trading volume, general market conditions, the company's working capital requirements and general business conditions, according to the announcement on Qudian's official website.

The repurchase program, terminating Nov 20, 2018, will be funded by the company's existing cash and cash equivalents or future cash provided by operating activities. Qudian had cash and cash equivalents of about 1.48 billion yuan ($222.9 million) as of Sept 30, the company said.

Qudian made its debut Oct 18 on the New York Stock Exchange with an initial public offering of 37.5 million American depositary shares at $24.00 per share for a total offering of about $900 million and it started trading at $34.35 per share that day, jumping 43.1 percent from its pricing, and was traded at $31.48 apiece around midday, Xinhua News Agency reported.

However, the trading price of Qudian Inc on NYSE dropped by over 30 percent to $13.85 per share Tuesday, right after the Chinese government issued an urgent notice, suspending regulatory approval of licenses for new internet microloan companies to enter the market, according to financial news and services provider wallstreetcn.com.

Statics show about 153 internet microloan licenses have been issued to companies in 19 provinces all over China and 79 out of 143 internet microloan companies are listed on stock markets, NetEase reported, citing the leading industry information provider wdzj.com.

The suspension of issuing new licenses could signal greater regulation to come for existing players, with users beginning to push back on high interest rates from noninstitutional lenders, according to a report by CNBC.

The stock prices of PPDAI, one of the first online consumer finance platforms in China launched in June 2007 and listed last month on NYSE, and Yirendai, China's first financial technology company that went public, both dropped over 10 percent Tuesday, according to wallstreetcn.com.

The internet microloan industry has witnessed fast development, as more Chinese consumers turn to online lenders to make even minor purchases and Chinese online platforms' consumer lending tripled last year to almost $140 billion, CNBC reported citing a recent report by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.