Lufax, one of China’s largest peer-to-peer lenders and online wealth managers, has delayed its highly anticipated initial public offering and may push back the listing until next year, several people familiar with the matter said.
The delay of the flotation for regulatory reasons will put a damper on Asia’s equity capital markets this year after Ant Financial Services also decided to hold off its listing until, at the earliest, the last quarter of 2018, the FT reported last month.
Lufax, which is controlled by Ping An Insurance, was valued at $18.5bn after a round of fundraising in early 2016. Ant, an affiliate of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, was last valued at $60bn. The listing was projected to raise up to $5bn and was one of most followed capital market events of 2017.