Laybuy plans to delist from ASX in March

Gary Rohloff, managing director of Laybuy. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Local buy now, pay later firm (BNPL) Laybuy is seeking shareholder approval to voluntarily delist from the Australian stock exchange (ASX).

Laybuy first listed on the ASX in September 2020 in order to raise capital and help fund its continued growth in the United Kingdom, where Laybuy is one of the top three BNPL providers.

But the ASX-listed provider told the market in July last year that it had cut a third of its staff – mostly in its Auckland headquarters – rather than raising capital, in a bid to turn profitable early this year.

Today, managing director Gary Rohloff said the Laybuy board had determined that due to continued low trading volumes and the underperformance in the company’s share price, the costs of remaining on the ASX outweighed any future potential benefits.

It was in the best interests of shareholders to voluntarily delist, he told shareholders, but the decision hadn’t been taken lightly.

“The ongoing administrative, compliance and direct costs associated with maintaining our listing on the ASX are significant and delisting allows the company to free up approximately $500,000 to invest in other parts of the business.”

Changed environment

Rohloff said that since Laybuy had listed on the ASX, the economic environment had changed “significantly”. This in turn had impacted investor attitudes toward growth companies.

“All publicly listed BNPL providers have experienced sharp falls in valuation as investors have shifted their investments away from growth companies and into profitable blue chip companies,” he said.

“To the disappointment of the board and shareholders, our continued strong performance has unfortunately not been reflected in our share price and this has led the board to conclude that the market might not be valuing the company fairly when compared to our peers.”

Rohloff added that delisting would allow the board to undertake a more “objective and independent” appraisal of the valuation of Laybuy – while also supporting potential future investment from a broader range of partners.

Laybuy shares will no longer be able to be bought or sold on the ASX after the delisting, with the company’s shares to instead be on the specialist trading platform Catalist Public Market, a licensed and regulated NZ online stock exchange for small and medium-sized businesses.

A formal application to seek removal from the ASX has already been approved and the proposal will be put to shareholders for approval on February 22.

If approved, the company aims to delist a month later on March 22.

- BusinessDesk