Pushpay shares halted ahead of shareholder sell down

Pushpay chief executive Bruce Gordon speaking at Napier Conference Centre. Photo / Warren Buckland

Pushpay shares have been placed in a trading halt on the NZX this morning as two existing shareholders offload a significant combined stake.

The maker of digital and church management software requested the halt to facilitate a bookbuild for an unspecified amount of shares.

A subsequent NZX announcement revealed co-founder Chris Heaslip and director Christopher Fowler as the sellers. Interests associated with Heaslip are selling 41.67 million shares and interests associated with Fowler are selling 13.01 million.

The share sale equates to a combined value of $95.7 million and following the sale Heaslip's stake will decrease to 0.2 per cent with Fowler retaining 1.2 per cent.

The share register lists Christopher & Banks V Ltd, the private equity vehicle of Christopher and Peter Huljich, as holding 15.68 per cent of the company. The Huljichs - anchor investors in Pushpay - sold $124m worth of shares in a July block trade as the family reduced its stake.

Departing chief executive Bruce Gordon said in September that he was selling half his stake, worth around $12.4m at the time.

In July last year, Heaslip sold down 41.2 per cent of his shareholding, netting $46.4m, while retaining 17.5m shares which were placed in escrow for 18 months.

In 2018, co-founder Elliot Crowther sold a 9 per cent stake for around $100m.

Pushpay shares closed yesterday at $1.89 having recently undergone a share split.
The stock has climbed 85 per cent over the past 12 months.

Pushpay last month reported a 51 per cent revenue gain to US$86.6m and net profit that doubled to US$13.4m - but customer growth that had stalled since March.

Pushpay said total customers were 10,896 - up 38 per cent against the first half of FY2020, but flatlined since March.

While the Covid-19 pandemic had been so key to accelerating adoption of digital-giving via Pushpay as congregations turned to meeting over Zoom, it also hampered travel and face-to-face selling.

Nevertheless, Pushpay - which is headquartered in Auckland but does most of its business with US congregations and reports in US dollars - said processing volume rose from US$2.2b to US$3.2b. But monthly average revenue per customer slipped 1 per cent to US$1272.

The increases have come as use of Pushpay's software has boomed during US lockdowns. Analysts see the pandemic as a catalyst for more churches going digital, and keeping Pushpay's pay-monthly software long-term.

Net debt reduced from US$50m as of March 31, 2020 to US$25m.

Chief executive Bruce Gordon told a conference call that digital giving was increasing as a proportion of total giving fast enough to offset any decline in total giving.

Pushpay shares were recently trading at $1.89.

The stock is up 84 per cent for the year.