According to Reuters, OPay, a Nigeria-focused digital payments company, has set out the terms of its initial public offering in the US. It is seeking to raise up to USD 366 million by offering approximately 16 million American Depositary Shares (ADS) at between USD 19 and USD 21 each. At the top of that range, the company would be valued at up to USD 4.42 billion. The shares are set to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker ‘OPAY’.
The company is pursuing the listing to meet demand for digital financial services in emerging markets, a segment where it has been building its user base since its launch.
Offering structure and investor interest
Alongside the public offering, Stanbic Africa Holdings has agreed to invest up to USD 200 million through a concurrent private placement. Combined with the IPO, this would bring the total capital raised to as much as USD 566 million. Investors, including Redwheel Group, Coronation Africa Frontiers Fund, and other existing backers, have also indicated non-binding interest in buying up to USD 270 million worth of ADS.
According to the filing, entities linked to SoftBank hold a 6.6% stake in OPay before the offering. Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Standard Bank, and CICC are among the underwriters.
In addition, OPay plans to use the proceeds from the IPO and the private placement to invest in technology, expand its distribution network and geographic presence, develop new products, and pursue potential acquisitions and strategic investments.
Founded in 2018, OPay offers payments, money transfers, savings, and loans. Beyond Nigeria, it operates in Indonesia, Egypt, and Pakistan. The company was founded by the entrepreneur behind China-based gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech, which previously owned the dating app Grindr.
OPay raised USD 400 million in 2021 at a valuation of USD 2 billion. The upper end of its IPO target would value the business at more than twice that figure.
Nigeria, which ranks sixth globally by population, has developed into a prominent fintech market in Africa. According to Tracxn, it has produced several fintech companies, including Moniepoint, Flutterwave, and Interswitch. OPay’s listing would bring one of the country’s consumer-focused digital financial services providers to a US exchange.
According to the announcement, the offering comes at a difficult time for US listings. The IPO market is facing renewed pressure from higher inflation and a selloff in AI-related stocks. These conditions have weighed on investor appetite for new listings and prompted several companies to delay their plans. Against this backdrop, the indicated interest from existing backers and the committed private placement from Stanbic Africa Holdings form a substantial part of OPay’s capital-raising structure.
