South African bank buys big stake in Dubai business
FirstRand has acquired a 20% stake in Optasia ahead of the UAE-based company’s listing on the JSE.
Optasia provides fintech services to people across emerging markets. In South Africa, it works with MTN, Vodacom and Standard Bank.
FirstRand believes that the investment in Optaisa represents an exciting opportunity to leverage a proven fintech platform that solves the lending needs of underbanked or unbanked clients.
These consumers typically have had difficulty accessing traditional credit products.
“Optasia’s ability to pre-score customers, process microloans at scale, and use mobile data sales as a credit collection mechanism is highly innovative,” said FirstRand.
“It is clearly meeting the needs of millions of customers in 38 countries across Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
FirstRand said that FNB will be able to leverage the platform to accelerate its own strategy to grow in underrepresented markets.
This includes entry-level client cohorts and markets in its broader Africa portfolio.
FirstRand, which also owns RMB and Wesbank, added Optasia’s business model and strategy also represent growth opportunities.
This growth is in terms of geographic expansion, new product development and other banking, funding and treasury solutions.
Earlier this month, Optasia announced that it would look to list on the JKE to raise R1.3 billion. These funds are intended to support growth organically and via future potential acquisitions.
A secondary share sale of around R5.0 billion from existing shareholders was also announced through a private placement to qualified investors. Optasia will not receive funds from the secondary sale.
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