CHINESE insurance broker Yuanbao on Tuesday (Sep 17) filed for an initial public offering in the US, signalling a broader recovery in investor appetite for new listings.
IPOs in the US are experiencing a reasonably stronger year after a prolonged dry spell as more companies test the market, encouraged by the strong performance of high-profile listings like Reddit, alongside a rally in equities.
But, the number of IPOs by China-based companies in the US has come down significantly in the last several years, after Beijing clamped down on offshore capital raising in 2021.
EV maker Zeekr’s debut on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this year was the first big listing by a Chinese company in the US since ride-hailing giant Didi Global was forced to delist its shares in late 2021 following a backlash from Chinese regulators.
Yuanbao is an online insurance distributor in China, that uses data and artificial intelligence to provide customizable insurance plans to its customers.
The company is the largest independent insurance distributor in China’s personal life and accident and health (A&H) insurance market in terms of first-year premiums in 2023, the company said in its IPO filing.
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Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and CICC are the lead underwriters for the offering.
Yuanbao’s full-year revenue rose to 2.05 billion yuan (S$374.6 million) in 2023, compared to 850.3 million yuan a year earlier, the company said.
The company’s first-year premiums more than doubled to 17.6 billion yuan in 2023, from 8.5 billion Chinese yuan in the year-ago period.
Yuanbao, which did not reveal the terms of its offering, is planning to list American depositary shares (ADS) on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “YB”. REUTERS
