Lending Club Chooses NYSE For Its IPO

The planet’s largest peer-to-peer lender, Lending Club, has chosen the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) for its IPO, in a nasty blow to tech-friendly Nasdaq.

The Lending Club decision “marks the latest example of a technology company eschewing the exchange after its botched handling of Facebook’s IPO in 2012,” reported The Financial Times. “Over the past year, NYSE has taken market share by winning coveted tech listings including Twitter, the social media platform, and Alibaba, the Chinese ecommerce company. While markets have been rocked by worries over economic growth and wild gyrations in the price of stocks and bonds, Lending Club’s offering is expected to go ahead before the end of the year. The San Francisco company is seeking to sell at least $500m of shares to the public and achieve a valuation of potentially $5bn.”

The story said that Lending Club’s steadily growing price—it was projected at only $1.6 billion last year—is a sign of mutual fund groups, hedge funds and private equity firms joining VC players in anticipation of high-profile IPO launches.

“The two biggest peer-to-peer lenders, Lending Club and Prosper, have together originated $7bn of loans via their platforms since starting operations about seven to eight years ago,” the story said. “They argue that they are able to use new technology to match lenders with borrowers more efficiently, thereby bypassing traditional banks and credit card companies.”