Chinese finance technology firm Lexin debuts on Nasdaq

NEW YORK — Chinese online consumer finance technology company LexinFintech Holdings Limited on Thursday rang the Nasdaq Stock Market opening bell in celebration of its Initial Public Offerings (IPO).

LexinFintech Holdings Limited, trading under the ticker symbol of "LX," priced its initial public offering of 12,000,000 American depositary shares (ADSs), at $9 per ADS for a total offering size of approximately $108 million, assuming the underwriters do not exercise their over-allotment option to purchase additional ADSs.

Each ADS represents two Class A ordinary shares.

In addition, Lexin's selling shareholders have granted the underwriters an option, exercisable within 30 days from the date of the final prospectus, to purchase up to an aggregate of 1,800,000 additional ADSs to cover over-allotments.

Lexin started trading at $11.8 per share on Thursday, jumping 31.1 percent from its pricing, and was traded at $11 apiece around midday.

As an online provider of installment-based loans to young Chinese consumers, the company had 3.3 million active customers in the nine months ended Sept 30, representing a 103-percent increase and a 34-percent increase from 2015 and the nine months ended Sept 30, 2016, respectively.

"China's online consumer finance market is growing rapidly, and we are well positioned to capture the long-term growth potential of educated young adults in China, and to serve their growing credit and consumption needs," Lexin Founder and CEO Jay Wenjie Xiao told Xinhua.

By the end of 2020, the outstanding loan balance of the consumer finance market in China is expected to grow from $844 billion at the end of 2016 to $1,655 billion, representing a compound annual growth rate of 18.3 percent, according to US consulting firm Oliver Wyman.

"The IPO on Nasdaq is an important milestone for Lexin, and we will continue to invest in our financial technologies to provide better service to our users," Xiao said.