Optasia’s plans to list on the JSE could see the company valued at up to R23.5-billion in its public market debut.

In a pre-listing statement on Monday, Optasia, whose backers include investor Michael Jordaan, outlined its intention to price its initial share offer at between R15.50 and R19/share. The number of shares on offer will top out at just under 420 million, representing a maximum of 30.4% of the company’s equity.

“At an offer price between R15.50 and R19/share, the total offer size would be approximately R6.5-billion for between 342 million and 420 million shares, representing a float of between 27.7% and 33.6% of the company and putting the equity value between R19.4-billion and R23.5 billion at IPO,” an Optasia spokesman told TechCentral.

A lower or higher subscription rate will affect the valuation. Furthermore, Optasia could attract a lower or higher valuation once trading begins. “The offer is subject to minimum acceptances,” it said the statement.

Optasia plans to offer up to 84 million ordinary subscription shares to raise some R1.3-billion. A further 281 million secondary shares will be sold by private shareholders and amount to about R5-billion.

The company will not benefit from the sale of secondary shares. A buffer of up to 15% of the base shares that will be made available, dubbed an “over-enrolment option”, has also been factored in as is “customary for transactions of this nature”.

Publication of the pre-listing statement follows the announcement earlier this month that Optasia – a fintech that uses proprietary AI algorithms to determine creditworthiness – plans to list on the local bourse. Optasia’s algorithms use unstructured data where structured data otherwise does not exist to make its determinations.

Emerging markets

Speaking to TechCentral in an interview earlier this month, Optasia CEO Salvador Anglada said the company mostly operates in emerging markets where formal banking channels were yet to reach large sections of the population. Optasia partners with fintechs such as Vodacom’s M-Pesa and MTN’s MoMo to reach customers via those respective mobile applications.

After a valuation is performed and a suitable lending limit determined, Optasia leverages its partnerships with licensed financial institutions to disburse funds, also underwriting the amount loaned out in case of a default.

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Anglada said the average amount disbursed is US$5 and customers can access more funds as they build a stronger credit history (as they pay back their loan instalments on time). A third of Optasia’s clients are small business owners funding their day-to-day operations.