OPay Ltd., the Singapore-based digital payments company, raised $304 million by pricing its initial public offering at $19 a share, the bottom of its announced range. But when the American depositary shares were supposed to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange Friday, they simply didn't. Instead, buyers and sellers were left staring at indications well below the offer price, with no actual trades crossing the tape.
A Debut That Never Opened
OPay priced 16 million American depositary shares at $19 each on Thursday, October 29, the low end of a previously announced $19-to-$21 range, according to Nairametrics. The stock was expected to begin trading Friday on the NYSE under the ticker OPAY, the company said in a release distributed via PR Newswire. That did not happen as planned, as Bloomberg reported the shares did not begin trading in New York as expected.
As of 2 p.m. Friday in New York, OPay's depositary receipts were indicated to open at $16.25 to $16.75 each, Bloomberg reported, putting the stock well below the $19 price investors paid in the offering. By 3:30 p.m., the NYSE message feed reported a trading halt with news pending, and the same feed showed no executed trades for the stock, per the outlet's reporting.
What the Evidence Does and Does Not Show
Neither the halt notice nor the indicated pricing range explains why trading stalled, and no information has surfaced clarifying what triggered the message-feed halt or when, or whether, shares eventually began changing hands. The reporting that documented the stalled debut does not identify a cause.
The listing had been framed as a milestone for the company. OPay said it launched in Nigeria in 2018 and now serves more than 50 million users across Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan, and Indonesia, the company said in its PR Newswire pricing announcement. Lars Rahbaek Boilesen serves as co-chief executive officer of OPay, and Shamsuddeen Usman chairs OPay Nigeria, according to the seed reporting on the listing.
Growth Numbers Behind the Listing
OPay's scale has expanded rapidly in the past two years. The company processed $358 billion in gross transaction value in 2025, up from $166.2 billion the year before, while monthly active users climbed to 39.3 million from 25.1 million, per the same Nairametrics account of the IPO. OPay also reported a 9.9% market share by monthly active users across Africa and the Middle East for the six months ended June 30, 2026, according to Renaissance Capital.
Company executives had touted even sharper financial momentum heading into the listing. OPay chief financial officer James Perry said the company reached a $1 billion revenue run rate in the second quarter of 2026, according to a company release carried by PR Newswire. Perry also said OPay grew 137% year over year and reached a 19% net margin in the first half of 2026, per the same release.
A Rocky Backdrop for New Listings
The stalled debut landed amid a jittery broader market for new stock offerings. Stubborn inflation and a selloff in AI-related stocks have weighed on investor sentiment, with volatility and valuation concerns prompting some companies to delay their own listings, according to CNBC Africa.
For now, the state of OPay's stock remains unresolved. No information has been reported on when shares eventually started trading or at what price, leaving investors who bought into the $304 million offering waiting to see what their shares are actually worth on the open market.
