US Expansion - Early Signs

With so much of the share price value dependant on the performance of the US expansion I thought that I would bring some aspects of my post on this issue forward.

I would firstly like to seek comment from some of the more thoughtful posters here regarding the option deal with Matrix, as well as the mooted deal with the employees.
Did this employee deal happen?? From the 16th Jan announcement.

A further entitlement of up to 10% of Afterpay US may be granted to employees of the Afterpay group, albeit this has not been fully committed at this stage.

The company has released some recent updates regarding the US operations so far and I have collated this information below.

▪ Momentum building in the U.S., with over 800 retailer contracts signed, over 400 retailers currently transacting on the U.S. platform, and over 150,000 registered U.S. based customers having transacted to date

▪ Afterpay commenced trading in the U.S. in mid-May 2018. Underlying sales (GMV) was approximately A$12m in June and A$20m in July (unaudited)

▪ The U.S. pipeline remains strong with underlying sales volume expected to rise as the number of integrating merchants and customers continues to increase and seasonal retail tailwinds come into play during the remainder of calendar year 2018

Afterpay launched in the U.S. in mid-May 2018. Early engagement with enterprise and mid-tier retailers and their customers has been encouraging. Approximately A$20m of underlying sales (GMV) was processed in July 2018 (unaudited). Over 400 retailers are currently transacting on the U.S. platform, and over 800 retailer contracts have been signed as of mid-August 2018.

▪ Afterpay recently launched in the U.S in mid-May 2018. The early engagement with enterprise and mid-tier retailers and their customers is encouraging

▪ Since launching in mid-May 2018, over $11m of underlying sales was processed in the first full month, June 2018. By comparison, it took approximately 16 months for the Australian Afterpay business to achieve $11m of cumulative underlying sales

▪ Afterpay is pleased with the early performance of our major initial launch partner, URBAN OUTFITTERS (live since 16 May 2018). Afterpay has now been rolled-out across the entire online platform of brands across the group – URBAN, FREE PEOPLE and ANTHROPOLOGIE ▪ The proposition is performing well with strong conversion and basket size dynamics similar to our experience in Australia ▪ The debit/credit card mix is sitting at levels similar to Australia

▪ Over 400 retailer contracts signed to date and over 200 retailers are currently transacting on the platform

▪ While the U.S. business is still at an early stage and transaction data is limited (albeit in line with early expectations), Afterpay will implement additional risk and transaction control measures progressively, and in response to future results and observed dynamics specifically relevant to the U.S. market

We have quite a lot of information here, but nothing at all on the level of losses.  I think the last point above that refers to "additional risk and transaction control measures..." is the important one.

There are very good reasons to believe that the transaction losses will be much higher in the US market than in Australia.

Regards and
GLTAS