Ping An’s fintech halo is losing its glow

Ping An Healthcare and Technology Co

04/12/2019 02:07

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.  The opinions
expressed are his own.)
    By Alec Macfarlane
    HONG KONG, Dec 4 (Reuters Breakingviews) - China's top
insurer may list its OneConnect banking software business at a
$5 bln valuation. That would be a third lower than its last
funding round, which included SoftBank’s Vision Fund. Other
cutting-edge ventures have hit bumps, too. Ping An is falling
short of the hype.
    Full view will be published shortly.
    On Twitter https://twitter.com/AlecMac11
    
    CONTEXT NEWS
    - Ping An Insurance’s OneConnect Financial Technology said
on Dec. 2 that it would sell shares in an initial public
offering at between $12 and $14 apiece, raising $468 million at
the midpoint of the range and valuing the company at $4.8
billion.  
    - The company was valued at $7.5 billion last year following
a $750 million fundraising round. 
    - OneConnect provides technology to small- and medium-sized
banks and other financial institutions. The company was eyeing a
valuation of roughly $8 billion and an IPO of up to $1 billion,
unnamed sources told Reuters in June. It changed the listing
venue to New York from Hong Kong in the hope of achieving a
higher valuation, Reuters also reported. 
    - Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are among the
main banks working on the IPO. 
    - For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can
click on  MAC/ 
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Ping An's OneConnect to launch $500 million U.S. IPO in rare
down round: sources     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N28C3SR
SEC filing    https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1780531/000104746919006277/a2239965zf-1.htm
BREAKINGVIEWS - Lufax sounds Beijing death knell for peer
lenders     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N24J0KN
BREAKINGVIEWS - Ping An offers up a glimpse of China’s bank
reboot     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N20Z0PM
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
 (Editing by Clara Ferreira Marques, Jeffrey Goldfarb and Sharon
Lam)
 ((alec.macfarlane@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
alec.macfarlane.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))