Daily Price Movement / General Discussion, page-38361

Another one for the Micro loan scrap heap and guess who is spruiking it.

Beforepay chairman Brian Hartzer has moved to douse suggestions that he baulked at putting his signature to the company’s latest full year accounts because he felt uncomfortable with the financial performance of the business.

The digital payday lender, which is now being heavily spruiked by Melbourne brokers for an IPO, revealed in September that it had a net asset deficiency of A$13 million and incurred loan write-offs to more than one third of its receivables book in the 2021 financial year.

Beforepay’s future appears to be hanging on the successful completion of the IPO, which is being managed by Shaw and Partners.

However, the IPO is not guaranteed to complete given the prevailing market sentiment towards loss-making fintechs on the ASX.

Valuations of buy now pay later, consumer credit and other lending startups have been smashed in the last 18 months, with stocks such as Openpay and Splitit now trading at discounts of more than 70 per cent to their 24 month peaks.