Online trading platform Webull, set to go public through a US$7 billion special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal this year, is gearing up to capture a new wave of individual investors in Asia as it intensifies its global expansion efforts.

The company aims to ride its success in the US market to vault to the top ranks of trading platforms worldwide, according to Anthony Denier, Webull's group president.

"We want to bring the success we've had in the US, the lessons we've learned, and the customer-experience tools we've developed to the global market," Denier said in Hong Kong.

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"My vision is that over the next two years, our brokerages will be ranking among the top three brokers in every country" where the company already has a presence, he added.

Founded in 2016 by former Alibaba Group Holding and Xiaomi employee Anquan Wang, Webull offers zero-commission trading services for retail investors, and operates in 15 markets in Asia, Latin America and Europe. It is affiliated with Chinese holding company Hunan Fumi Information Technology. The firm saw its popularity surge during the meme-stock frenzy in 2021, and accumulated 4.3 million funded accounts by the end of 2023, with US$8.2 billion of customer assets.

In February, Webull announced that it had reached a merger agreement with blank-check company SK Growth Opportunities to list its shares on the Nasdaq through a SPAC deal. The company has been profitable for the past two years, making it an opportune time to go public, Denier said.

The IPO, expected to raise US$100 million, is projected to value Webull at US$7.3 billion, according to the prospectus.

"Once we're public, we will not only have access to capital, but it will also give our customers more confidence in who we are in terms of our scale, size and dependability, which will help us get to that top three mark," he said.

While the US currently accounts for most of its business, Webull plans to diversify its revenue streams over the next two years. "The plan is for the US to represent only 50 per cent of revenue, with the rest coming from everywhere else," Denier said.

Southeast Asia is a key region the brokerage wants to focus on, because it has a young, mobile-savvy population. One of Webull's key features, an in-app forum where users can exchange their market views, could help young investors to build an online trading community and "democratise ideas", Denier said.

Anthony Denier, group president and US CEO of Webull, photographed in Tsim Sha Tsui on August 15, 2024. Photo: Xiaomei Chen alt=Anthony Denier, group president and US CEO of Webull, photographed in Tsim Sha Tsui on August 15, 2024. Photo: Xiaomei Chen>

"I think Southeast Asia presents a great opportunity to take a lot of market share, because the competition is less intense than it is for developed markets," he said. "There's a lot more opportunity to not only be first to market, but to offer a product and platforms."

But the sailing may not be entirely smooth. Webull has faced scrutiny over its Chinese ownership as geopolitical tensions between Beijing and Washington rise.

In April this year, the attorney general for the US state of Indiana initiated a multi-state inquiry into whether the company may have exposed clients' personal information to the Chinese government.

"Is it a concern? It is," Denier said. "Everything is a concern. But has it impacted us? No."

Webull operates each brokerage locally, with customer information in the US strictly stored there, he said. "There is no one outside the US that has access to any US customer information."

Being a publicly traded company will provide clients with more transparency and confidence in the company, which is one reason Webull is pursuing the IPO, Denier said. The conversations the company is having with regulators are going "very well", and the firm is looking to complete the listing this year, he added.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright ? 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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