Australia's Afterpay mulls US listing as North America powers Q3 results

[BENGALURU] Afterpay said on Tuesday it was exploring a US listing without disclosing a timeline, as the Australian buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) firm's third-quarter sales volumes more than doubled and beat market expectations.

Led by a robust growth in North America, its underlying sales, or the value of transactions it processed, jumped to A$5.2 billion (S$5.37 billion).

North America is the company's biggest growth market where it is pitted against Affirm, Zip's Quadpay and archrival Klarna, which is valued at US$31 billion and is looking for a direct listing in the United States.

Afterpay's sales volume from the region surged 167 per cent, thanks to strong marketing and a pandemic-driven surge in online shopping at a time when credit card usage is withering.

The Melbourne-based firm was last valued at A$36.51 billion and has over the last year muscled its way into Australia's 20 most valuable stocks.

A US listing would likely further open up the fintech firm to an investor base that lends greater weight toward growth prospects.

The company said it intends to remain headquartered in Australia, but did not specify if a potential US market debut would be based on a dual listing structure or result in it giving up its local berth.

"There is no timeline set for a Board decision on a US listing and any listing would be subject to market conditions, approval by a US exchange and satisfying a number of other customary listing prerequisites," the company said.

Active customers using Afterpay's platform climbed more than 11 per cent from the end of December to 14.6 million, with the North America, adding the most. The company said signups in April so far were 6 per cent higher than the reported quarter.

Afterpay, which last month launched in parts of mainland Europe and has plans to move into Asia, said its company branded-saving accounts is expected to go live later this year.

REUTERS