OPay cancels New York Stock Exchange listing
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on 3News
Nigerian fintech OPay cancelled its New York Stock Exchange listing after pricing its shares at $19, in a deal that was expected to raise $304 million. The company cited an unspecified foreign regulatory investigation, according to Reuters, and said its shares would not be traded.
Nigerian fintech OPay cancelled its New York Stock Exchange listing, a day after setting the price of its shares at $19 and planning to raise $304 million. The company and its advising banks mutually terminated their underwriting agreement, citing a regulatory investigation in an unnamed country, according to 3News.
OPay’s US shares will therefore not begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange as planned. The company said the investigation concerned a jurisdiction that was not significant to its core operations and that it expected a swift resolution. It said the decision reflected neither its performance nor its financial or regulatory position, and that its services were operating normally in Nigeria, Indonesia, Egypt and Pakistan.
The sale of 16 million shares at $19 each valued OPay at about $4 billion, twice its 2021 valuation. Standard Bank Group, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and China International Capital Corporation were among the advising banks. A private transaction of up to $200 million by Stanbic Africa Holdings depended on the IPO taking place. OPay had also planned a secondary listing on the Nigerian Exchange.
The cancellation comes after the suspension of OPay’s Wall Street listing, announced on 31 October, and the publication on 30 October of the $304 million the company intended to raise by selling its shares in New York.
