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The
Minneapolis-based company closed the day at A$2.20 per share,
shy of the A$2.58 session high, nearly double its initial public
offering (IPO) price of A$1.22 a share.
Sezzle, yet to post a profit, only operates in the United States
and Canada and said it will fund growth in those two countries
with the A$43.6 million ($30.03 million) it raised from the
oversubscribed IPO.
"We certainly haven't sold any of our shares, we think they may
trade higher in the coming days and weeks," said Dean Fergie,
portfolio manager at Cyan Investment Management, a fund that
bought shares in the IPO.
The listing comes as Australian lawmakers have called for
tougher regulation of these lenders and as a regulator ordered
an external audit of rival firm Afterpay Touch Group Ltd <APT.AX>
over suspected non-compliance with anti-money-laundering laws.
Buy-now-pay-later companies let shoppers purchase products
without paying upfront, and without the regulatory hurdle of
applying for a credit card or loan. They typically make money by
receiving fees from vendors.
Afterpay's problems have pressured the sector that has become a
favorite of analysts because it is expected to benefit from the
growth in online shopping as millennials dominate the workforce
in the United States.
Afterpay and other local buy-now-pay-later companies such as Zip
Co Ltd <Z1P.AX>, FlexiGroup <FXL.AX> and Splitit Ltd <SPT.AX>
all closed lower on Tuesday compared with a broader market <.AXJO>
that rose to a record peak on Tuesday.
Sezzle, which launched its lending platform in 2017, has brought
on a payments lawyer to audit its anti money laundering
compliance and know-your-customer processes in the United
States, Chief Executive Charlie Youakim told Reuters on the
phone.
He added that the company plans to conduct a yearly audit.
Sezzle said it had 429,898 active customers as of June 30, up
roughly 60% from the previous quarter. Active merchants rose to
5,048 from 3,321.
The company is looking to diversify as well.
"We're definitely exploring other countries," said Youakim. The
company considers United Kingdom, Europe and Mexico as prospects
but Youakim said decisions on expansion were not imminent.
"More of a wild card idea would be India," he said, citing its
huge online market opportunity as a positive.
(Reporting by Nikhil Kurian Nainan, additional reporting by Aby
Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry
Jacob-Phillips, Sayantani Ghosh & Uttaresh.V)
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