I agree that Asia is another story altogether - I was specifically referring to China. In Asia, Alibaba and Tencent don't have a dominant presence and use a similar model to buying stakes in local players. Asia at the moment is dominated by Grab and Gojek (both of which have Softbank as a shareholder, with Softbank also being a major Alibaba shareholder). There are indications that Grab and Gojek may merge creating an even bigger powerhouse. Therefore APT's purchase of Empatkali (based in Singapore) but operating in Indonesia is probably a good first step but they will have to fight Gojek on its own turf.
However, I have just returned from a 4 year stint in Asia with PayPal and the dynamics there are different - it was even difficult for a behemoth like PayPal. Banks offer BNPL indirectly via their credit cards (and all at 0% interest up to 24 months being the longest case). There will likely be a place for an app such as APT however its take up may not be as quick since there are already alternatives that work there. There are many times where I have made purchases on my credit card only to receive an SMS asking whether I would like to split the payments and all I have to do is reply to it with the relevant duration I would like.
Of course all of this would already be credit checked since it works off the credit card limit but generally the limits are 3-4 times the monthly salary so even if you earn say $4k a month, you get a credit limit of between $12k-$16k.
And more importantly, Asia is more heavily regulated than Australia or America.
I can clearly see why the takeup in Australia and the US has been there as those countries don't seem to have those offerings so readily available. And I understand why APT may wish to leverage Tencent in China - but Tencent will have no incentive to do so as they will already have their own solution in place. Tencent may of course help out with other parts of Asia...
I guess only time will tell...
APT Price at posting:
$73.84 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
