Today, Lending Club released an updated S-1 filing for its upcoming IPO. In this document is the long awaited confirmation that Lending Club will be reserving shares in their IPO for retail investors.
This is something that has been hinted about before and when I interviewed Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche recently on the Lend Academy Podcast he indicated that was their intention. But this is the first time that we have seen hard evidence that this will actually happen. There is a “Directed Share Program” section buried deep in the S-1 that provides this information (emphasis is mine):
At our request, the underwriters have reserved % of the shares of common stock offered by this prospectus for sale, at the initial public offering price, to our directors, officers, employees, investors that have invested through our marketplace as of September 30, 2014 and other individuals related to us. Shares purchased by our directors and officers will be subject to a 180-day lock-up restriction. The number of shares of common stock available for sale to the general public will be reduced to the extent these individuals purchase such reserved shares. Any reserved shares that are not so purchased will be offered by the underwriters to the general public on the same basis as the other shares offered by this prospectus.
While we have no idea what percentage they are reserving it is pretty clear that some shares will be available to retail investors come IPO time. I reached out to Lending Club today for more details but not surprisingly they had no comment. Rest assured you will hear about it on Lend Academy as soon as more information is made available.
Lending Club Will Be Listed on the NYSE With Ticker Symbol “LC”
Also in this prospectus is the confirmation that Lending Club will be listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol “LC”. There was some competition between the NYSE and Nasdaq to obtain the listing. It looks like the NYSE won the day so in the near future we will probably see Renaud Laplanche and other Lending Club executives ringing the opening or closing bell there on IPO day.
There has been coverage today of this news by The New York Times as well as the Financial Times who really have their finger on the pulse of the Lending Club IPO.
Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of LendIt Fintech, the world’s first and largest digital media and events company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series. Peter has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The New York Times, CNBC, CNN, Fortune, NPR, Fox Business News, the Financial Times, and dozens of other publications.