Tencent-backed brokerage poised to raise US$90m in IPO

Hong Kong

FUTU Holdings Ltd, the online Chinese broker backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd, is poised to raise US$90 million after pricing its US initial public offering at the top of the targeted range, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The company plans to sell 7.5 million American depositary shares at US$12 each, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. It marketed the shares at US$10 to US$12 each.

Futu, which helps Chinese investors trade overseas stocks, originally sought to raise about US$300 million when it filed confidentially for an IPO, people familiar with the matter said in October. The company is the fourth-largest online retail broker in Hong Kong based on revenue for the six months through June of last year, according to a filing with the US Securities & Exchange Commission. It brokered about US$116 billion in trades in 2018.

The company set its IPO target to US$130.8 million when it officially filed to go public in February. This week, it scaled back the size of the share sale after striking a deal to sell US$70 million in stock in a private placement to General Atlantic.

The listing is the latest in a wave by companies backed by Chinese tech magnate Pony Ma's Tencent, whose investment arm has stakes in more than 100 startups worth US$1 billion or more. Sixteen companies Tencent has invested in went public in 2018.

Futu's share sale was arranged by Goldman Sachs, UBS, Credit Suisse, HSBC and BOCI Asia. BLOOMBERG