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Qudian raises $900m in IPO

China’s online micro-credit provider Qudian Inc raised $900 million in an IPO that priced above expectations, underscoring robust US investor demand for fast-growing Chinese companies.

The offering from Qudian represents the biggest-ever US listing by a Chinese financial technology company. It is also the most high-profile company to take part in a resurgence of US listings by Asian companies this year.

Qudian, which is backed by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial and became profitable last year, operates a website that allows college students and young whitecollar workers to buy laptops, smartphones and other consumer electronics in monthly installments.

Its American depositary shares were priced at $24 each, above the marketed range of $19$22.

Orient Hontai to buy Imagina

Orient Hontai has agreed to buy a majority stake in Spanish sports rights group Imagina for $1 billion, the latest deal from Chinese investors to transform the Asian country into a global soccer powerhouse.

Imagina, known as Mediapro after the name of one of its subsidiaries, has the rights to distribute the La Liga soccer championship, Europe’s third-richest league.

The Chinese private equity firm reached a preliminary deal with three of Imagina’s shareholders to buy a 54 percent stake, Imagina founder and chairman Jaume Roures said.

Roures said the deal still had to be authorized by the Chinese government, which has cracked down on overseas soccer investments in recent months, though he hoped the operation could be closed in early 2018.