Waton Financial Ltd. (WTF) to Raise $25 Million in IPO

Waton Financial Ltd. (WTF) is planning to raise $25 million in an initial public offering on Thursday, February 27th, IPO Scoop reports. The company plans to issue 5,000,000 shares at $4.00-$6.00 per share.

In the last twelve months, Waton Financial Ltd. generated $10.8 million in revenue and $1 million in net income. Waton Financial Ltd. has a market-cap of $241 million.

Cathay Securities acted as the underwriter for the IPO.

Waton Financial Ltd. provided the following description of their company for its IPO: “We are a holding company. (Incorporated in the British Virgin Islands) We are a provider of securities brokerage and financial technology services primarily through our Hong Kong subsidiaries, Waton Securities International Limited, or WSI, and Waton Technology International Limited, or WTI. WSI is principally engaged in the provision of (i) securities brokerage services for securities listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, including shares under the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect and Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq Stock Market, margin financing services and other ancillary services through WSI’s electronic trading platform to its corporate and individual brokerage customers and bond distribution services; and (ii) software licensing and related support services including the licensing of trading platform APP, upgrades and enhancements, maintenance and other related services to financial institutions. Since September 2023, WTI has provided software licensing and related support services in order to focus on the expertise of operations and service areas. WSI has developed and provided Broker Cloud solutions to securities brokers with the combination of software licensing and related support services, securities brokerage services, margin financing services and other related services, where securities broker customers are provided with a perpetual on-premise licensed trading platform APP and optional related support services, with the front-, middle- and back-office operation functions and securities trading function where securities trading orders can be cleared and settled through WSI. Founded in 1989, WSI is an established integrated securities broker in the Hong Kong financial services industry. WSI is licensed to conduct Type 1 (dealing in securities), Type 4 (advising on securities), Type 5 (advising on futures contracts) and Type 9 (asset management) regulated activities under HKSFO in Hong Kong. WSI is a Hong Kong Stock Exchange participant and holds one Hong Kong Stock Exchange trading right. WSI provides securities brokerage services through WSI’s integrated electronic trading platform, which is easy to access, use, and deposit to WSI’s customers. The trading platform can be accessed through WSI’s APP, which provides WSI’s customers with a seamless and secured trading experience. WSI offers its customers comprehensive brokerage and value-added services, including trade order placement and execution, account management, and customer support. WSI further provides its customers with market data, news and research, so as to help them make well-informed investment decisions. WSI has accumulated a corporate and individual customer base across the globe, including a securities brokerage company in New Zealand known as Wealth Guardian Investment Limited (“WGI”), which is a related party of the Company. We derived a substantial portion of revenues from WGI, which accounted for approximately 39.5% and 81.5% of our total revenues in the fiscal years ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively, and approximately 68.0% and 98.2% of our total revenues for the six months ended September 30, 2024 and 2023, respectively. See “Related Party Transactions” and “Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Subsidiaries’ Business and Industry — We derived a substantial portion of revenue from WGI, a single related party customer”. By capitalizing on its customer base, WSI commenced to provide bond distribution services by acting as a manager, a placement agent or a non-syndicate capital market intermediary, to procure subscribers to subscribe and pay for bonds in principal amounts during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024 and for the six months ended September 30, 2024. As of September 30, 2024, WSI had more than 5,800 securities brokerage customers who opened trading accounts with WSI, 59 of which are corporate customers who opened corporate accounts and three of which are introducing broker customers who opened omnibus accounts. The remaining portion of the securities brokerage customers are individual customers whoopened individual accounts and typically trade through WSI’s trading platform APP. As of the same date, WSI had over 600 active customers, who were registered customers with assets in their trading accounts. We generate brokerage and commission income from WSI’s securities brokerage, bond distribution and other ancillary services and interest income from WSI’s margin financing services, and our brokerage and commission income and interest income which amounted to approximately US$9.4 million and US$2.3 million, and accounted for approximately 93.4% and 39.9% of our total revenues, for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively, and amounted to approximately US$1.8 million and US$1.9 million, and accounted for approximately 61.3% and 83.7% of our total revenues, for the six months ended September 30, 2024 and 2023, respectively. Leveraging on WSI’s accumulated industry knowledge on the needs of small and medium-sized securities brokers and operational experience in online brokerage over the years, WSI started to develop the provision of fintech solutions in trading platform APP software licensing and related support services targeting the securities brokers and securities-related financial institutions in April 2021. We are a pioneer of business-to-business fintech services in the Asia-Pacific region to offer one-stop brokerage software solutions to small and medium-sized brokers, according to Frost & Sullivan Limited, or Frost & Sullivan. WSI provides one-stop, integrated and customized software solutions to develop trading platform APP that covers the front-, middle- and back-office operations of securities brokerage business such as electronic trade order placing, customer relationship management and operational data management, in addition to the business-to-business securities order clearing and settlement services provided by WSI in the Broker Cloud solutions, which enables the securities broker customers to digitalize and streamline their business operations, and interact with the financial market more efficiently. As of September 30, 2024, March 31, 2024 and 2023, WSI and WTI provided software licensing and related support services to a total of five, three and five securities brokers and securities-related financial institutions, respectively, including WGI, which is a related party of the Company. See “Related Party Transactions” and “Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Subsidiaries’ Business and Industry — We derived a substantial portion of revenue from WGI, a single related party customer”. We generate software licensing and related support service income from WSI’s and WTI’s software licensing and related support services, which amounted to approximately US$1.4 million and US$3.5 million, and accounted for approximately 13.7% and 60.1% of our total revenues for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively, and amounted to approximately US$1.1 million and US$0.7 million, and accounted for approximately 38.7% and 29.0% of our total revenues, for the six months ended September 30, 2024 and 2023, respectively. WSI and WTI have outsourced the software licensing and related support services to Shenzhen Jinhui Technology Co., Ltd., a related party of the Company. See “Related Party Transactions” and “Risk Factors — Risks Related to Our Subsidiaries’ Business and Industry — WSI and WTI are dependent on a single related party supplier, Shenzhen Jinhui Technology Co., Ltd., an information technology company and a related party controlled by Mr. Zhou Kai, our Chairman of the Board, Director, Chief Technology Officer and shareholder, for providing software development and related support services”.  Note: Net income and revenue are for the 12 months that ended Sept. 30, 2024. (Note: Waton Financial Ltd. is offering 5.0 million shares at a price range of $4.00 to $6.00 to raise $25.0 million.) “.

Waton Financial Ltd. was founded in 1989 and has 31 employees. The company is located at Suites 3605-06, 36th Floor, Tower 6, The Gateway, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong Tel: +852 2853 1818 and can be reached via phone at +852 2853 1818 or on the web at https://www.waton.com/.