ZhongAn Online P & C Insurance Co. Ltd., China's first online-only insurer, plans to raise up to HK$11.53 billion through a Sept. 28 listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange, it said Sept. 17.
The Shanghai-based insurer will offer 199,293,900 shares, or about 13.84% of the company's enlarged issued share capital, at an indicative price range between HK$53.70 and HK$59.70, according to the prospectus. The listing will raise between HK$10.37 billion and HK$11.53 billion in proceeds to the company, valuing ZhongAn between HK$77.32 billion and HK$85.96 billion.
CEO Chen Jin said at a Hong Kong press conference that the company is developing fast and needs to raise capital through the IPO to invest in China's insurance technology market.
"You can think of [ZhongAn] as an insurance company, but it is more like an insurance technology company," Chen said.
ZhongAn, founded in 2013, has built a reputation as a trailblazer with niche and often innovative insurance offerings such as shipping return and flight delay policies. It filed an IPO application June 30 at the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Bookbuilding starts Sept. 18 and will close at noon on Sept. 21.
J.P. Morgan Securities (Far East) Ltd., Credit Suisse (Hong Kong) Ltd., UBS Securities Hong Kong Ltd. and CMB International Capital Ltd. are the IPO's joint sponsors.
SoftBank Group Corp. has agreed to subscribe to 36.08% of the shares on offer as a cornerstone investor and may do so through wholly owned investment fund SoftBank Vision Fund.
The insurer's major shareholders include Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. affiliate Ant Financial Services Group, Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd. It received a 50 billion yuan valuation following a series A funding round in June 2015 by raising nearly 5.78 billion yuan from investors including Morgan Stanley and China International Capital Corp. Ltd.
ZhongAn recorded gross written premiums of 3.01 billion yuan for the first seven months of 2017, 82.6% higher than the same period a year ago, according to China Insurance Regulatory Commission statistics. The company held 0.5% share of China's P&C market as of end-July.
As of Sept. 15, US$1 was equivalent to 6.54 Chinese yuan.