Chinese fintech company X Financial makes NYSE debut

NEW YORK - X Financial, a Chinese tech-driven personal finance company, rang the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) opening bell on Wednesday in celebration of its initial public offering (IPO).

The company, trading under the ticker symbol of "XYF", announced its initial public offering of 11,000,000 American depositary shares (ADSs), each representing two Class A ordinary shares, at a price to the public of $9.5 per ADS for a total offering size of approximately 104.5 million dollars, assuming the underwriters do not exercise their option to purchase additional ADSs.

The underwriters have been granted an option, exercisable within 30 days from the date of the final prospectus, to purchase up to 1,650,000 additional ADSs at the initial public offering price less the underwriting discount.

X Financial started trading at $15 per share on Wednesday, climbing 27.58 percent from its pricing, and was traded at $12.12 apiece around midday.

Founded in 2014, the company is mainly focused on serving China's underserved prime borrowers and mass affluent investors. It provides personal financial services based on mobile internet and big data in China.

Simon Cheng, president of X Financial, told Xinhua that the great potential of the consumer finance market in China combined with the company's capability in data analytics would help its further development.

The company plans to use the net proceeds of this offering primarily for general corporate purposes, including investment in product development, sales and marketing activities, technology infrastructure, improvement of corporate facilities and other general and administrative matters, said its prospectus.

Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley are the joint bookrunners on the deal.