Buy Now Pay Later group Afterpay has America in its sights.
In its third quarter update, the company confirmed media reports earlier in the year that it was looking at a US market listing in the not-too-distant future.
It revealed this plan as confirmed that the US had overtaken Australia to become Afterpay’s biggest market, helping underlying sales had jump 104% in annual terms during the March quarter.
The company said in Tuesday’s update that it is working with external advisors to explore options for a US listing.
Afterpay said no timeline had been sent for a board decision on a potential US listing, and such a move would be subject market conditions and approval from a US exchange.
“While Afterpay intends to remain an Australian headquartered company, our shareholder base is increasingly becoming more globally focused. A US listing would further accommodate this growing interest,” the company said in a statement.
In a quarterly business update, Afterpay said that in the March quarter, the US had been its largest contributor to underlying sales, which were up by 211% in that market on a local currency basis.
It said that during the quarter, its total North American customer numbers had risen to 9.3 million, with 17,600 people joining the platform every day, on average.
It also said that sales in the UK had risen 211% from the previous corresponding period (which was a very low base) with active customers around 1.9 million.
All up Afterpay reported active customer numbers up 75% to 14.6 million.
Afterpay said it saw strong customer acquisition momentum throughout April, up 6% in daily average new customers in the month to date. The March Afterpay Day sale drove a 40% increase in new, active global customers and generated about 6 million referrals to merchants.
Afterpay said gross losses continued to remain below historical rates in all operating regions. It was a similar story for net transaction losses which remain similarly low.
The shares eased 0.8% to $125.23.
