IPO hopeful Afterpay, created only a year ago and now - potentially - worth more than $100 million, will meet with prospective investors this week, sources told Street Talk.
IPO hopeful Afterpay, created only a year ago and now - potentially - worth more than $100 million, will meet with prospective investors this week, sources told Street Talk. As this column revealed, Afterpay is working on an ASX listing with Wilson HTM.
The company, which allows online shoppers to buy now and pay later, was co-founded by former Guinness Peat Group boss Anthony Eisen and his neighbour, young tech entrepreneur Nick Molnar.
Its business model is to give shoppers up to two months to pay for their purchases, taking the financial risk off the underlying retailer. Afterpay went live on Iceonline.com.au in early January 2015 and is used by about 15 retailers, including food hamper provider Edible Blooms, Wildfire Sports, Princess Polly, and Toymate.
Afterpay also has the backing of ASX-listed payments company Touchcorp which holds about a 35 per cent stake. Touchcorp inherited the stake after helping to develop Afterpay's technology platform.
AfterPay's listing gives Touchcorp's equity stake an implied valuation of about $50 million or 43¢ per share (pre-tax), which is above previous expectations, Wilson HTM analyst Andrew Dalziel said in a note to clients on Monday.
"AfterPay's rapid growth increases the valuation of Touch's equity stake, but more importantly higher transaction growth will benefit Touch from higher operational revenue," he added.
