Tencent, one of China’s largest internet companies, is looking to beef up its new banking affiliate by helping it raise $1bn in new capital, according to investors.

中国最大互联网公司之一腾讯(Tencent)希望通过新一轮10亿美元融资增强其新建银行子公司的实力。

The bolstering of Webank, which is 30 per cent owned by Tencent, is part of a government-approved push by China’s biggest internet conglomerates into finance — an area dominated by state-owned banks.

腾讯持有微众银行(Webank)30%股权，腾讯为微众融资之举是中国政府批准的中国最大互联网集团进军金融业计划的一部分，中国金融业现在由国有银行主宰。

Beijing hopes the push will lead to a rise in lending to small and medium-sized companies, which have been largely ignored by the state banking sector.

中国政府希望这一计划将扩大对中小企业的贷款，中小企业基本上不受国有银行的重视。

The fundraising for Webank, which plans to offer small loans and other financial products to customers, is expected to value the company at $5bn. Tencent declined to comment on the capital raising.

预计微众银行此次融资对该公司的估值为50亿美元。腾讯拒绝就此次融资置评。微众银行计划向客户提供小额贷款和其他金融产品。

Tencent and other internet companies plan to use troves of internet “big data” to determine the creditworthiness of customers who might otherwise not have access to larger banks’ lending due to lack of collateral.

腾讯和其他互联网公司计划利用互联网“大数据”库，来确定客户的信誉，这些客户可能会因缺少抵押无法获得大银行的贷款。

The planned $1bn fundraising will help WeBank expand its personal-loan service called Weilidai — “a little loan” in English — which allows users to borrow up to Rmb200,000 without collateral.

此次规模为10亿美元的融资计划，将帮助微众开拓"微粒贷"个人贷款服务，这种服务允许用户在没有抵押的情况下最多借款20万元人民币。