Lufax Holding Ltd, a Chinese peer-to-peer lender and one of the country's largest online wealth management platforms, filed to list its shares in the U.S. on Wednesday, becoming the latest company looking to take advantage of a rebound in capital markets despite stricter scrutiny on Chinese firms.

Lufax, backed by financial giant Ping An Insurance Group, did not disclose the size of its offering but set a placeholder amount of 100 million U.S. dollars. It is said to become the largest fintech IPO in the U.S. this year, according to the previously rumored volume of 2 billion dollars to 3 billion dollars.

The Shanghai-based company is looking to list its American depositary shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "LU," Lufax said in a filing here.

Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities, UBS Investment Bank, HSBC and China PA Securities are the lead underwriters to the company's offering.

The company's filing revealed that funds will be mainly used to beef up technology through infrastructure construction, research and development, investment or acquisitions.

Set up in 2011 as a peer-to-peer platform by Ping An, the company now operates in China's retail credit and wealth management industries. According to Oliver Wyman, Lufax's two businesses ranked second and third in China respectively.

The company posted a net profit of 1.07 billion dollars for the first six months, with nearly 88 percent earned from its technology platform. As of June 30, its outstanding balance of retail credit facilitate stood at 76 billion dollars, and total client assets generated through its online wealth management platform reached 55 billion dollars, according to the filing.

IPO amid rising China-U.S. tensions

Lufax's New York listing comes against the backdrop of a number of Chinese companies looking to reconsider their listings on U.S. exchanges amid rising U.S.-China tensions.

"Tensions between the U.S. and China have escalated due to… trade disputes, the COVID-19 outbreak, sanctions imposed by the U.S. Department of Treasury on certain officials of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the central government of the PRC and the executive orders issued by U.S. President Donald J. Trump in August 2020 that prohibit certain transactions with certain Chinese companies and their applications," Lufax detailed in its filing.

In addition, lawmakers in Washington are pushing for greater scrutiny of Chinese companies through proposed legislation that threatens to delist some firms in the U.S.

Read more:

Expert: Washington's threat to delist Chinese firms may give competitive boost to non-U.S. exchanges

"Any of these factors could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations," Lufax said in the filing.

In order to avoid the risk of listing in the U.S., some Chinese concept stocks have begun privatized delisting or secondary listing in Hong Kong. Zero2IPO Research statistics showed that 15 Chinese concept stocks have planned for such capital operations and five of them have completed privatization or secondary listing as of mid-September.

Why did Lufax choose to file a U.S. listing at this time?

According to market analysts, the U.S. listing is more in line with Lufax's own business characteristics, and is helpful for international investors to get familiar with its business, paving the way for further development of its international wealth management business.

Lufax established an international arm of Lu Global in 2017 in Singapore and obtained three financial licenses in Hong Kong this year. Its business have gradually gone overseas and become international.

The company's desire to obtain a higher valuation may also be a factor, as investors in the U.S. stock market can easily understand its type of business, for there are many internet finance-related listed companies in the market.

Lufax was valued at 38 billion dollars before its latest fundraising in 2018.

The IPO follows the listing of OneConnect Financial Technology, another fintech company backed by Ping An, which raised 312 million dollars in December 2019.

(With inputs from agencies)