Shares of Pintec Technology Holdings Ltd, which operates an online platform that facilitates merchant financing in China, rallied on their first day of trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market in New York on Thursday.

The stock, which trades under the symbol PT, jumped in the last few minutes of trading to close at $12.49, up 61 cents or 5.1 percent, from its initial public offering price of $11.88. The company sold 3.7 million American depositary shares to raise about $44 million.

CEO William Wei said Pintec intends to use the IPO proceeds to invest in technology and enhance its digital laboratory.

"We may also invest in a China-based lending company to acquire a micro-lending license for future growth," he said in an interview.

Wei said Pintec's core value is to work with its business and financial partners. Pintec offers five solutions for its partners. Three are lending related, while two are non-lending — wealth management and digital insurance.

For example, Wei said Pintec can work with a company in China that seeks financing to export its product.

"We can connect the company with financial institutions that can provide the needed financial solutions," he said.

In addition to China, Wei said Pintec also is involved in two joint ventures — Pivot and Avatec, both based in Singapore and targeting Southeast Asian nations.

According to the company's prospectus filed earlier this year, its top five shareholders are Genius Hub, Mandra iBase, New Fortune Fund, Ventech China and Xiaomi Ventures.

By providing solutions on point-of-sale lending, personal installment lending, small- and medium-enterprise lending, wealth management and insurance products, Pintec had 183 business partners and 83 financial partners as of June 30, including Qunar, Ctrip, BestPay, Vip.com, Xiaomi, 360 Finance, Anbang Finance and Minsheng Securities, the prospectus said.

The company has grown rapidly, with revenue increasing from 54.9 million yuan ($8.02 million) in 2016 to 568.7 million yuan last year. Revenue jumped to 279.4 million yuan in the first quarter of this year from 63.6 million yuan in the same period last year.

Pintec turned a profit in the first quarter of 2018 with net income of 14.6 million yuan after suffering net losses of 200.5 million yuan in 2016 and 84.9 million yuan in 2017.

The company is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, and its directors control nearly 79 percent of the voting power.

Despite trade tensions between China and the US, Chinese companies have been eager to list on American markets. Chinese IPOs in the US accounted for about a fifth of US IPO proceeds in the first quarter this year, according to Renaissance Capital, a research firm based in Connecticut.

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