Is the Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) share price a takeover target?
Zip Co provides customers with a revolving line of credit to finance their retail purchase with its brands of Zip Pay, Zip Money and Pocketbook. It is one of the largest buy now, pay later providers in Australia. Some of its largest clients include Bunnings Warehouse, Appliances Online, EB Games and Officeworks.
Is The Zip Co share price a takeover target?
The Australian Financial Review’s Street Talk has reported that Zip Co is a potential takeover target by Latitude Financial Services, which is owned by Deutsche Bank, KKR and Varde Partners. You may have seen some of their ads which featured Alec Baldwin.
Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT) has been getting all of the attention, but Zip Co has been winning a lot of custom as well.
In the December 2018 announcement, the company reported quarterly revenue of $19.2 million, which was a 28% increase compared to the first FY19 quarter. The December 2018 half showed revenue growth of 114% compared to the December 2017 half.
The AFR reported that Latitude was doing some early due diligence but at least one of Latitude’s shareholders was not keen to add more funds.
However, Latitude has cooled on the prospect of acquiring Zip Co. Over the past six months the Zip Co share price has risen by 160%, which makes it much larger to acquire and the valuation is more expensive.
Another roadblock to an acquisition is that Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC) owns almost 16% of the buy now, pay later provider. I’m sure Westpac itself would like to be a major player in the space and acquiring Zip Co would be a way to do it.
With the Zip Co market capitalisation rocketing towards $1 billion it’s doing great for shareholders but I don’t think it’s going to be a takeover target by Latitude now, unless it gets desperate.
Zip Co is running a bit too hot for me to consider it a buy, I would rather invest in the growth shares outlined in the free report below.
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