BNPL market leader Afterpay (ASX:APT) posted a loss of $79.2 million in the second half of 2020, despite doubling revenue and sales, as well as its net transaction margin.
Some analysts were expecting (perhaps hoping?) for a maiden half year profit, but the $79.2m loss after tax came from a net loss on potential liabilities of $64.8 million associated with the valuation of its ClearPay UK venture.
The Melbourne-based global fintech’s shares are in a trading half after it also announced a $1.25 billion capital raise via a convertible notes issuance. It plans to increase its stake in Afterpay US from 80% to 93%.
The acquisition will cost $373 million, taking a 35% slice from the holding of US advisor Matrix, valued the subsidiary at $10.6 billion.
The half-yearly results to December 31, 2020 reveal Afterpay now generates a majority of its transactions offshore. International transactions as a share of total transactions rose from 34% on 12 months ago to 51%.
Underlying sales rose by 106% in H1 FY20 to $9.8 billion. On a constant currency basis, the sales were up 112% to $10.1 billion.
Income made a similar leap, up 108% to $374.2 million. Net transaction margin also increased 110% to $213.9 million.
Group total income was up 89% to $417.2m.
Net transaction loss as a percentage of underlying sales was steady at 0.5%, but one metric that also more than doubled was net transaction loss, rising 115% to $46.8m compared to the prior corresponding period.
The active customer base is up 80% to 13.1 million users, with North American delivering 8 million of that figure. Merchants grew by 73% to nearly 75,000.
The company says it expects regulatory approval for its acquisition of Spanish BNPL Pagantis will land in about mid-March and they are preparing to launch in Spain, France and Italy with a $1bn pipeline of merchants.
Afterpay is also turnings its attention to South East Asia following its takeover of EmpatKali last August, and now has a singapore base.
In Australia, it’s preparing to launch Afterpay Money app, with a pilot underway and pre-MVP testing slated for Q4 FY21 and official launch in Q1 FY22. The app customers will have a linked debit card, with salary able to be paid directly into the account.
The company’s billionaire co-founder CEOs, Anthony Eisen and Nick Molnar, are also turning their attention to philanthropy, announcing they’ll sell down up to 450,000 shares each as a cash contribution into a Private Ancillary Funds (PAF) for charitable
purposes. The duo intend to transfer approximately 950,000 $APT shares into their respective PAF from their personal shareholdings.
Afterpay did not offer any guidance for the rest of FY21.
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