Simpson Thacher represented Qudian Inc. (“Qudian”) in connection with its initial public offering and listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The offering was comprised of 43,125,000 American Depositary Shares, representing 43,125,000 Class A ordinary shares, and raised a total of approximately US$975.5 million in gross proceeds, including full exercise of the underwriters’ overallotment option. Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Citigroup, CICC and UBS Investment Bank acted as representatives to the underwriters of the offering. The offering is the largest IPO in the United States by a Chinese company this year to date and also the largest U.S. listing by a Chinese fintech company.
Qudian, a provider of online credit products, uses big data-enabled technologies (such as artificial intelligence and machine learning) to transform the consumer finance experience in China. According to industry survey, Qudian is the largest online provider of small credit cash products in China in terms of the number of active borrowers and the amount of transactions. Qudian’s American Depositary Shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol of “QD.”
The Simpson Thacher team for the IPO included Chris Lin, Daniel Fertig, David Lee, Kai Fan and Cherrie Zhang (Capital Markets); Jonathan Cantor and William Smolinski (Tax); and Tristan Brown and Paul Barrus (ECEB).