OneConnect returns to US with 18 m ADSs

OneConnect Financial Technology Co Ltd, the fintech arm of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China Ltd, announced the pricing of the public offering of 18,000,000 American Depositary Shares by the company, each representing three of the company's ordinary shares at a public offering price of $18 per ADS. The underwriters will have a 30-day option to purchase up to an aggregate of 2,700,000 additional ADSs from the company.

OneConnect expects to use the net proceeds from the offering for enhancement of its platform and technology capabilities, international expansion and strategic investments and general corporate purposes.

According to the filing, Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC, Morgan Stanley & Co LLC and China PA Securities (Hong Kong) Co Limited are acting as joint bookrunners for the offering. The fund raised is much more than expected, which shows investors are very confident about the company's future development.

Last week, OneConnect posted strong financial results for the second quarter of the year. In the three months through June, its revenues hit 774 million yuan ($111.58 million), up 48 percent year-on-year. Revenues from third-party customers rose 29 percent from the same period in 2019 to 287 million yuan.

In its filing on Monday, OneConnect wrote, "As of June 30, 2020, we had served all of China's major banks, 99 percent of its city commercial banks, and 53 percent of its insurance companies, collectively reaching hundreds of millions of end-customers."

"Since our establishment in December 2015, our platform has supported Chinese financial institutions in serving approximately 2 trillion yuan in transactions for their end-customers," it also said.

Through the platform, in the six months ending on June 30, on a daily basis OneConnect facilitated over 185,000 anti-fraud checks, 4.3 million credit risk assessments, and processed over 13,000 auto insurance claims.

The company witnessed a sharp stock increase on Friday to $20.13 per American depositary share, which doubles its IPO level in December 2019.