Chinese online lender Weidai makes NYSE debut

NEW YORK - Weidai, which provides an auto-secured loan platform for small businesses in China, rang the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) opening bell on Thursday in celebration of its initial public offering (IPO).

The company, trading under the ticker symbol of "WEI," announced its initial public offering (IPO) of 4,500,000 American depositary shares (ADSs), each representing one Class A ordinary share, at a price to the public of $10 per ADS for a total offering size of approximately $45 million.

Morgan Stanley and Citi acted as lead managers on the deal.

Weidai started trading at $10.50 per share on Thursday, climbing 3.50 percent from its pricing, and was traded at $10.35 apiece around midday.

Established in 2011 by a group of entrepreneurs with backgrounds in small and micro enterprises, the company provides small and micro enterprise owners with accessible credit. It has built a nationwide network of 492 service centers across approximately 300 cities over the past seven years, said its filing.

Weidai is the largest auto-backed financing solution provider in China in terms of loan volume in each of 2015, 2016 and 2017, with a market share of approximately 35 percent in 2017, according to the Oliver Wyman Report.

The company generates revenues primarily from service fees charged to borrowers through facilitating and managing loans. Its revenues increased 101.3 percent to 3.545 billion yuan ($535.8 million) in 2017 from a year earlier, showed its prospectus.

In the first six months of this year, the company's net revenues increased by 20.1 percent to 1.883 billion yuan ($284.6 million) from the same period in 2017.

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