NEW YORK, Feb 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 30
Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges in 2019 and 12 of them
had Tiger Brokers (NZ) Limited ("TBNZ"), a wholly owned subsidiary
of UP Fintech Holding Limited (NASDAQ: TIGR) (together with TBNZ
and other affiliates, "UP Fintech"), act as one of the underwriters
for their offerings.
In 2015, UP Fintech introduced its proprietary trading platform,
Tiger Trade, which provides global Chinese investors with seamless
access to U.S. equities and other global securities. In the past
few years, UP Fintech's focus on innovation and superior user
experience has enabled it to grow rapidly; according to iResearch,
the firm has become the largest online broker for global Chinese to
invest in U.S. equities.
UP Fintech is also expanding its institutional business,
particularly investment banking and equity underwriting in the
TMT space through its wholly owned subsidiary, TBNZ. Since 2017, UP
Fintech has participated in many high profile Chinese Tech IPOs,
including those of Chinese search engine Sogou Inc. (SOGO),
ecommerce giant Pinduoduo (PDD), video streaming platform iQIYI
(IQ), and online education company Youdao (DAO).
UP Fintech's growing investment banking business has given the
firm the opportunity to closely cooperate with a diverse range of
corporate clients, giving it a better understanding of the
challenges faced by Chinese companies that have held a U.S. IPO. UP
Fintech is expanding its existing portfolio of corporate services
to meet the needs of its growing client base.
"Chinese companies from different industries face a variety of
difficulties through the IPO process in the U.S. On one
hand, many Wall Street institutions are unfamiliar with
relatively lesser-known Chinese companies, which may result in less
allocation of resources to these companies. On the other hand,
Chinese companies may not possess the requisite expertise to
efficiently manage a new issue in the U.S. market. This is where
our unique business model and market understanding distinguish our
firm: we are ourselves a young technology company, so compared to
traditional banks, we are naturally more connected to these
emerging companies and understand their needs better. In addition
we may leverage our growing customer base of institutional and
retail investors to provide a huge demand for the new issuance,"
said Mr. Wu Tianhua, CEO of UP Fintech.
Expanding its portfolio of corporate services is a key strategy
of UP Fintech's development, so the firm has acquired new licenses
to support its expansion. In October
2019, UP Fintech's wholly-owned subsidiary, US Tiger
Securities, Inc., received approval for conducting new businesses,
including underwriting, private placements, mergers and
acquisitions, mutual fund retailing, as well as selling group
participant services from the Financial Industry Regulatory
Authority ("FINRA"). Within two months of receiving these licenses,
UP Fintech and its subsidiaries had participated in seven more
Chinese ADR IPOs in the U.S.
With a staff that draws from its rich range of experiences in
investment banking and financial services, UP Fintech is able to
assist potential issuers on every step of their IPO planning. UP
Fintech's Corporate Services team advises issuers on capital
structure, equity story, and the ECM/Sales team is able to connect
issuers with over 200 institutional investors to build demand for
the IPO.
In order to develop a comprehensive suite of corporate services
for client firms, UP Fintech also provides ESOP management services
to corporate clients, enabling them and their employees to
conveniently manage their equity incentive schemes. After the IPO,
UP Fintech assists issuers' ESOP participants open brokerage
accounts on its platform, which creates a new channel for client
acquisition. Furthermore, after a successful listing, UP Fintech
may offer other financial services to corporate clients to support
secondary offerings or investor relations efforts.
In 2019, UP Fintech and its subsidiaries participated
in 18 U.S. IPOs, and UP Fintech served as an underwriter in 12 of
these IPOs. According to Bloomberg and SEC Edgar Data, UP Fintech
and its subsidiaries led U.S. IPO underwriting of Chinese companies
by deal count among brokerages in 2019.
In conclusion, UP Fintech's growing corporate services are key
to its strategy to create a comprehensive financial services
platform that fulfills the needs of client companies at every step
of their development and that also provides individual investors
unparalleled access to global securities markets. Expect more news
from UP Fintech as it helps a generation of Chinese companies go
global.
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SOURCE UP Fintech