News: SZL UPDATE 1-Buy now, pay later firm Zip to buy U.S. rival Sezzle in $352 mln deal

(Adds details on deal terms, result, background shares)

Feb 28 (Reuters) - Buy now pay later (BNPL) firm Zip Co Ltd (Z1P) said on Monday it would buy U.S.-based Sezzle Inc (SZL) in a A$491 million ($352.59 million) deal, as it looks to further expand its reach in the United States and take on rivals such as Afterpay.

Sezzle shareholders would receive 0.98 Zip ordinary shares for each Sezzle stock, the Australian payments firm said, adding that it will own about 78% of the combined group. The company also expects the deal to be EBTDA and cash-flow positive during financial year 2024.

After seeing a meteoric rise during the COVID-19 pandemic when online shoppers preferred alternate sources of credit for purchases, the BNPL sector has consolidated rapidly, with Jack Dorsey-backed Block Inc's SQ.N (SQ2) $29 billion buyout of Afterpay in August 2021 being among the sector's biggest deals.

Zip also announced on Monday a A$148.7 million share placement and a non-underwritten share purchase plan to raise up to A$50 million.

Shares of Zip and Australia-listed shares of Sezzle were halted for trading at 0051 GMT.

Separately, Zip posted half-year cash earnings before income taxes, depreciation and amortization to be a loss of A$108.1 million — in line with its own forecast of A$108.1 million — and missing RBC's estimate of a A$39.7 million loss.

($1 = 1.3926 Australian dollars) (([email protected]; Twitter: https://twitter.com/sameer_manekar))