Lufax, a Chinese online peer-to-peer lender and broker, plans to launch an initial public offering in Hong Kong as soon as the second half of 2016.
The company, which recently changed its name to Lu.com, seeks to raise $900 million to $1 billion by selling a 5 percent stake to Chinese and overseas investors before the IPO, 21st Century Business Herald reported, citing Gregory Gibb, chairman of Lufax.
Lufax, valued at $18 billion at present, was valued at $10 billion in March when it raised $485 million in the first round of fundraising.
The company, officially named as Shanghai Lujiazui International Financial Asset Exchange Co, saw a more than ninefold jump in its total transactions from a year earlier to 926.4 billion yuan ($143 billion) in the January-September period, according to quarterly reports of Lufax's biggest shareholder, Ping An Insurance (Group) Co.
"Transactions and investors on Lufax will continue to grow in the next few years," Gibb said, adding that over 16 million individual investors are on Lufax and trade will hit 1.5 trillion yuan in 2015.
