Quant Taps JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley For U.S. IPO

Quant, a FinTech that has backing from movie stars in China, has tapped JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley to serve as advisors to its initial public offering in the U.S.

According to a report in Bloomberg, citing people with knowledge of the matter, the company is aiming to raise about $200 million from the IPO and filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in August. Quant provides credit ratings and facilitates loans. It plans to gauge whether investors are interested in the IPO starting in September, noted Bloomberg. Quant is one of a handful of FinTech startups based in China that is looking to raise capital via the equity markets in the U.S. People with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg that Fenqile, a Chinese online shopping mall that enables installment payments, chose advisors for a roughly $600-million U.S. IPO in March.  What’s more, Bloomberg noted that China-based companies were able to raise $2.1 billion in the U.S. from selling shares for the first time during the last 12 months.

As for Quant, which had $15.7 million in profit last year and made 5.1 billion yuan ($767 million) in loans in 2016, it is not clear the timing and size of the IPO. Investors in the company, reported Bloomberg, include Star VC, the investment firm started by a group of Chinese celebrities, Guosen Securities Co. and Fosun International Ltd.

FinTech companies based in China looking to raise capital in the U.S. should have no problem doing so given that venture capitalists have been boosting their activity in the U.S. market, with Q2 FinTech investments regaining its strength, according to a recent report by KPMG. The firm’s Pulse of FinTech report for Q2 2017  found that overall FinTech funding in the U.S. increased to $2 billion in the quarter, up from $500 million in Q1. A total of 129 investment deals were completed in Q2, researchers noted.B2B FinTech is a new focus for investors, too, KPMG analysts said, with four of the top 10 deals of the quarter landing in the B2B market, as venture capitalists and innovators look to streamline and improve corporates’ back-office functions.

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