Chinese online small consumer credit provider Qudian debuts on NYSE

NEW YORK - Chinese online small consumer credit provider Qudian Inc made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wednesday, trading under the ticker symbol of "QD".

Qudian priced its initial public offering of 37,500,000 American depositary shares (ADSs) at $24.00 per ADS for a total offering size of approximately $900 million, assuming the underwriters do not exercise their option to purchase additional ADSs. Each ADS represents one Class A ordinary share.

Of the total 37,500,000 ADSs offered, 35,625,000 ADSs are being offered by the company and 1,875,000 ADSs are being offered by selling shareholders.

In addition, the 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 5,625,000 additional ADSs to cover over-allotments.

It becomes the biggest Chinese IPO in New York so far this year, surpassing the IPO of BEST Inc when the Chinese supply chain firm made its debut on NYSE on Sept 20, raising $450 million at 45 million ADSs.

Qudian started trading at $34.35 per share on Wednesday, jumping 43.1 percent from its pricing, and was traded at $31.48 apiece around midday.

The company is the largest online provider of small cash credit products in China in terms of the number of active borrowers and the amount of transactions in the six months ended June 30, 2017, according to the Oliver Wyman Report.

In the six months ended June 30, 2017, Qudian facilitated approximately $5.6 billion in transactions to 7.0 million active borrowers.

For the six months ended on June 30, 2017, Qudian's revenue was $270.4 million, up 393.3 percent from the same six months a year ago, while its net income for the six months ended on June 30, 2017 were $143.6 million, 695.2 percent higher than the year-ago period, the company said in its prospectus.