OPay halts New York Stock Exchange listing
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Leadership
OPay has suspended its New York Stock Exchange listing after a regulatory inquiry was opened, despite a planned $304 million raise and a valuation of about $4 billion. The company said its operations in Nigeria and its other markets were unaffected, according to a statement quoted by Leadership and Bloomberg.
OPay has suspended its New York listing after a regulatory inquiry was opened in a jurisdiction that the Nigeria-focused payments group considers immaterial to its core operations. The company announced on Saturday the joint termination of the underwriting agreement signed on 29 October with the banks handling the offering.
The offering had been set on Thursday at $19 per American depositary share, for 16 million securities and proceeds of $304 million. It valued OPay at about $4 billion, but its shares ultimately did not begin trading under the OPAY symbol as planned on 30 October, according to the company and Bloomberg.
OPay said the inquiry affected neither its operations, financial position nor services in Nigeria, Indonesia, Egypt and Pakistan. The group expects the matter to be resolved soon and said it was continuing discussions with the parties concerned, according to its statement.
