Harmoney slides on stock market debut
New Zealand consumer lender Harmoney has made its stock market debut after completing a AUS$92.5m (£50.85m) initial public offering (IPO).
Harmoney, which exited the peer-to-peer lending market earlier this year, will use the funds raised to increase lending in Australia and New Zealand and the funding of loans by bank-funded warehouse facilities.
It entered the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) today (19 November), priced at AUS$3.50 per share, giving it a market capitalisation of A$353m.
“The evolving nature of the Australian and New Zealand personal finance market represents a highly attractive growth opportunity for Harmoney,” David Stevens, managing director of Harmoney, said.
“The listing is a significant milestone for enabling the acceleration of growth across the Australian and New Zealand markets.”
Read more: New Zealand regulator releases first annual P2P data
However, its share price fell to AUS$3.30 on opening and closed that day at AUS$3.38.
Australian P2P lender Plenti went public in September at AUS$1.30 and is currently trading just below at AUS$1.28.
Harmoney launched in 2014 and had built up a £1bn P2P lending loanbook.
It announced in February that it will instead fund loans directly, starting from April, and all P2P loans will be repaid as they fall due.