Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) announced that it has raised $120 million and it has plans for this money.
Zip is one of the largest buy now, pay later businesses on the ASX.
What was in Zip’s announcement today?
Zip said that it has successfully raised $120 million (before costs) through a placement with institutional investors. This placement was supported by both new and existing institutional investors.
The issue price for these newly issued shares was $5.34, which was a 4.1% discount to the last closing price from yesterday. However, the Zip share price was around $8 in October and above $9 in August.
Zip said that the proceeds will be primarily used to fund global growth across the US, UK and “new markets”, whilst driving product expansion in Australia with Zip Business.
It’s going to try to capitalise on QuadPay in the US, accelerate customer acquisition, app usage and merchant partnerships. In the UK it’s going to try to win over merchants, including large enterprise clients.
Zip said it has recently established a new markets division to lead the active pursuit of global growth opportunities. It could invest in strategic interests, greenfield launches and local partnerships outside of its core business.
Zip CEO and Managing Director Larry Diamond said: “We are grateful for the support of existing shareholders that participated in the raise as well as new long term shareholders that joined our register, supporting our objective of making Zip the first payment choice everywhere and every day.
“The additional growth capital will enable Zip to capitalise on the successful acquisition of QuadPay in the US, scale Zip’s operations in the UK, lead the active pursuit of global growth opportunities and support the launch of Zip Business.”
Share purchase plan
Eligible existing Zip shareholders will be given a chance to buy up to $30,000 of new Zip shares at $5.34 (or a 2% discount to the average share price). The share purchase plan is expected to close on 13 January 2021.
Summary thoughts
It’s good to see that Zip has plans to grow even more. Global growth will be key for driving the Zip share price higher from here.
In some ways, all BNPL share prices don’t make sense, but I think Zip could be a better idea than Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) at the moment.
But I do prefer ASX growth shares in slightly different areas of the payment industry such as Pushpay Holdings Ltd (ASX: PPH) and EML Payments Ltd (ASX: EML).
