China's Largest Insurer Blockchain Subsidiary Files For US IPO

OneConnect Financial Technology Ltd, a subsidiary of China’s largest insurer Ping An Insurance (Group) Co of China Ltd PNGAY, filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

What Happened

The fintech company is aiming to raise up to $100 million in the IPO, its filing with the SEC suggests, with each share valued at $0.00001. OneConnect will apply to list the ADSs on the NYSE or NASDAQ Global Market.

The IPO’s underwriters include Morgan Stanley MS, Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS, JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM, HSBC Holdings plc HSBC, and Ping An among others.

The SoftBank Group Corporation SFTBY-backed start-up was looking to raise as much as $1 billion in its IPO, Reuters reported in August, nearly ten times the amount it has filed with the SEC. 

The company’s attempts to go public in Hong Kong failed earlier this year, according to Reuters.

Big On Blockchain 

OneConnect had more than 274 blockchain-related patents in China by June 2019 — the second-largest number of such patents in the country, according to cryptocurrency publication CoinDesk.

The company has eight research institutes and fifty labs dedicated to blockchain technology, CoinDesk reported.