At a time when the international situation is in dire straits, Lufax Holding is ready to go public in the United States, making it difficult to tell whether it is to hand over a knife or a ticket.

However, as the most famous P2P organization, Lufax Holding has whitened the tattoos of bad teenagers at that time. But it also brings several new concepts that confuse many people.

I. the basket of the middle class

How many middle classes are there in China?

This is a very magical figure. Some reports say that if a family's monthly income is more than 45000, it can be regarded as the middle class; others calculate that the annual income of 100000 + is far higher than that of most people and should be counted as the middle class; and foreign organizations have made rigorous calculations. It is believed that there should be 800 million middle class in China. ...

The middle class has become a basket in which anyone can put it.

It is precisely because of the ambiguity of the concept that many enterprises call it "high net worth middle class customers" when analyzing their customers.

China Merchants Bank says that hundreds of millions of his customers are middle class; Ping an Bank says that hundreds of millions of them are middle class; now Lufax Holding also says that its more than 13.4 million customers are mainly business owners and middle class.

Second, retail baskets

In 2016, Jack Ma and Ma Huateng came up with new retail concepts one after another. For a while, new retail in supermarkets, new retail in clothing stores, new retail in fresh stores, and even new retail in banks.

The concept of retail finance is surging. China Merchants Bank first put forward retail banks, followed by Ping an Bank, and Lufax Holding, not to be outdone, is called retail credit.

Lufax Holding's core business includes two major parts, one is retail credit, and the credit sales business is run by Ping an and Pratt & Whitney.

The second is wealth management, which is operated by Lufax Holding platform.

According to the company's prospectus, retail credit business, as of June 30, the balance of managed loans was 519.4 billion yuan, ranking second in the market of non-traditional financial institutions in China. The cumulative number of borrowers was 13.4 million. 69% of new loans in the first half of this year are small and micro business owners. It has cooperated with more than 50 loan partners, accounting for 99.3% of third-party funds from banks, trusts and other institutions.

As of June 30, the assets of clients under management reached 374.7 billion yuan, ranking third in the market among China's non-traditional financial institutions. The number of registered users of the Fortune platform reached 44.7 million and the number of active investment clients reached 12.8 million.

While the company's much-criticized P2P business has basically retired from the stage of history, the amount has dropped from 336.4 billion yuan in 2017 to 47.8 billion yuan in the first half of 2020, and the proportion of business has decreased from 72.9% in 2017 to 12.8% at present.

Third, P2P black history

Listed companies glued to P2P business, there is an one, all thunderstorm.

The reason is very simple: the risk of online loan business for individual users is uncontrollable.

P2P companies are eager for success, accounting is not standardized, omitting to mention or even do not mention bad debts, falsely increase profits, improve performance, unlisted companies use this to increase valuation, listed companies use this to increase market capitalization, and then thunderstorm before cashing out.

Why didn't the Lufax Holding mine explode?

Because there is a big tree of peace behind it.

The largest shareholder of Lufax Holding is Ping an Group, but from the perspective of related party transactions, the business of the company and Ping an is basically separated, with only 3.4% of the business from Ping an.

Lufax Holding's original intention was to do some clunky work for Ping an, but financial markets became more tightly regulated and had to be transformed into a so-called "wealth management" platform.

After years of cleaning, when it comes to IPO, Lufax Holding's P2P business has had little impact on the company.

However, Lufax Holding did not completely give up P2P business, this part of the business spun off, called Lu Jinfu.

What is retail credit? P2P Plus!

Although the company's core business includes retail credit and wealth management, retail credit accounts for more than 80% of revenue, according to the prospectus.

Wealth management is more of a cover.

To put it bluntly, Lufax Holding is safe and inclusive.

Star King went to Ping an Pratt & Whitney to try to get a loan.

Of course, because this is a "false" loan, there is no transaction, there is no authenticity, just for reference.

1. Ping an Pratt & Whitney can apply for a mortgage with anything that can be mortgaged, such as a property certificate, a driving license, a life insurance policy, and so on. These collateral are not all that easy to implement (so I am skeptical that 95% of the loans claimed by the company have collateral).

2. Ping an Pratt & Whitney's interest rate is close to the legal interest rate, but it needs to pay high service fees and insurance premiums, and the total cost is much higher than the legal interest rate.

3. If there is a legal dispute, the place of ownership is the location of Ping an and universal benefits.

4. What is the difference between the actual annualized interest rate and usury loans from the user's point of view and P2P?

Pseudo-financial technology companies

Lufax Holding's prospectus says the company does not produce water, but is just a porter of nature.

I crossed the stage.

The company does not lend directly, only makes the transaction platform, the loan is other financial institutions on the platform.

Claim to light asset operation, light asset operation is also a fashionable concept.

For Lufax Holding, this is a coquettish operation.

The legal borrowing rate cannot exceed 24%. If you borrow money from Ping an Pratt & Whitney, the interest rate given to you by other financial institutions is less than 24%. Doesn't it look good?

However, Ping an Pratt & Whitney requires you to have insurance on this loan, buy it from Ping an property Insurance, pay a consultation fee and pay a service charge. ...

After some operation, the total annual cost is far more than 24%!

But the company said, the interest rate for you to borrow money from a third-party financial institution through my platform is less than 24%. We are doing legitimate business.

If you buy things on Taobao, do you still have to pay a platform service charge for Taobao?

Many people compare the borrowing of Ant Group and Ping an Pratt & Whitney, in fact, the two are not comparable.

Borrowing is really relying on big data to evaluate personal credit, and then personalize the development of reasonable rates for lending, the interest rate is also open and transparent.

Just as Ant Group submitted a prospectus listed on Science and Technology Innovation Board, as the creator of China's first online guaranteed trading product (Alipay), Ant's scientific and technological strength is reassuring to consumers.

Lu Jin, all what?

In the first half of 2020, Lufax Holding spent 849 million yuan on technology and analysis, accounting for only 3.3 per cent of income. In the same period, the research and development expenditure of Ant Group reached 5.72 billion yuan, accounting for 7.9% of the income.

Both the amount and the proportion are still much worse.