{"id":839361,"date":"2025-10-08T09:22:58","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T07:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=839361"},"modified":"2025-10-08T09:23:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T07:23:04","slug":"dubai-based-finance-company-heading-to-the-jse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/839361\/dubai-based-finance-company-heading-to-the-jse\/","title":{"rendered":"Dubai-based finance company heading to the JSE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Optasia, a fintech company that provides micro financing and airtime credit products, plans to list on the main board of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dubai-based company enables access to financial services for millions of underbanked individuals across 38 countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company works closely with its distribution partners, including mobile network operators, mobile wallet operators and financial institutions.\u00a0In South Africa, it works with MTN, Vodacom and Standard Bank. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has offices in the UAE, South Africa, Greece, Egypt, Nigeria and Pakistan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It covers all aspects of micro financing and airtime credit products that allow airtime credit services, including scoring, financial decisioning, disbursements and collections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since its inception in December 2012, the company has developed a distribution network, which has given it access to over 860 million mobile subscribers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of 30 June 2025, Optasia operated via a network of 49 distribution partners and 13 financial institutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With roughly 120 million monthly active users, the company processes over 32 million daily loan transactions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has resulted in an average distributed value of more than $13 million per day and a total distributed value of approximately $23 billion since 2016<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the year ending 31 December 2024, the company generated $151.2 million and adjusted EBITDA of $75.1 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revenue and adjusted EBITDA grew at a compound annual growth rate of 10.4% and 13.1% respectively, between 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the six months ended 30 June 2025, the company generated revenue of  $117.2 million and had adjusted EBITDA of $53.8 million, increasing 90.3% and 91.3%, respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said it has consistently maintained positive cash flow and has not raised any primary capital since its commencement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The listing\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Optasia is looking to undertake a primary issuance of roughly R1.3 billion <\/strong>to support growth organically and via future potential acquisitions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will also be a secondary share sale of at least R5.0 billion from existing shareholders through a private placement to qualified investors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Optasia will not receive any proceeds from the selling shareholders’ sale of secondary shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom a single country operation to one of the world’s largest fintechs of its kind, we’ve built a profitable, capital-light business that continues with purpose to scale,\u201d said Salvador Anglada, Optasia CEO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have been dedicated to enabling financial inclusion across emerging markets, leveraging our AI-powered platform to provide vital access to credit and financial services for millions of underserved customers.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted that an IPO will allow the group to accelerate its growth, raise its visibility and expand financial opportunity where needed most. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/th>For the year ended<\/strong><\/th>For the year ended<\/strong><\/th>For the year ended<\/strong><\/th>For the six months ended<\/strong><\/th>For the six months ended<\/strong><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Period<\/strong><\/td>31 Dec 2024 (audited)<\/strong><\/td>31 Dec 2023 (audited)<\/strong><\/td>31 Dec 2022 (audited)<\/strong><\/td>30 Jun 2025 (unaudited)<\/strong><\/td>30 Jun 2024 (unaudited)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Revenue<\/strong><\/td>151,191<\/td>128,565<\/td>124,137<\/td>117,189<\/td>61,566<\/td><\/tr>
Direct service costs<\/strong><\/td>(19,444)<\/td>(9,648)<\/td>(8,342)<\/td>(27,513)<\/td>(6,328)<\/td><\/tr>
Provision for expected credit losses on financial guarantee contracts<\/strong><\/td>(33,421)<\/td>(25,014)<\/td>(20,643)<\/td>(27,249)<\/td>(14,827)<\/td><\/tr>
Operating expenses<\/strong><\/td>(26,314)<\/td>(28,063)<\/td>(26,654)<\/td>(20,265)<\/td>(12,246)<\/td><\/tr>
Net foreign exchange loss<\/strong><\/td>(394)<\/td>(6,050)<\/td>(14,235)<\/td>(17)<\/td>(670)<\/td><\/tr>
Provision for expected credit losses on other financial assets<\/strong><\/td>(7,754)<\/td>(9,070)<\/td>(98)<\/td>(1,214)<\/td>(6,611)<\/td><\/tr>
Depreciation and amortisation expense<\/strong><\/td>(8,680)<\/td>(7,573)<\/td>(6,559)<\/td>(4,573)<\/td>(4,032)<\/td><\/tr>
Operating Profit<\/strong><\/td>55,184<\/strong><\/td>43,147<\/strong><\/td>47,606<\/strong><\/td>36,358<\/strong><\/td>16,852<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Finance costs<\/strong><\/td>(10,816)<\/td>(7,600)<\/td>(1,940)<\/td>(6,022)<\/td>(5,210)<\/td><\/tr>
Finance income<\/strong><\/td>568<\/td>212<\/td>146<\/td>358<\/td>136<\/td><\/tr>
Share of loss from an associate<\/strong><\/td>(213)<\/td>(344)<\/td>(300)<\/td>(5)<\/td>(136)<\/td><\/tr>
Profit before taxes<\/strong><\/td>44,723<\/strong><\/td>35,415<\/strong><\/td>45,510<\/strong><\/td>30,589<\/strong><\/td>11,821<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Withholding and other taxes<\/strong><\/td>(2,760)<\/td>(6,769)<\/td>(10,517)<\/td>(2,462)<\/td>(1,392)<\/td><\/tr>
Profit before income tax<\/strong><\/td>41,963<\/strong><\/td>28,646<\/strong><\/td>34,993<\/strong><\/td>28,127<\/strong><\/td>10,429<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Income tax<\/strong><\/td>(5,376)<\/td>(1,173)<\/td>(1,274)<\/td>(4,850)<\/td>(2,815)<\/td><\/tr>
Profit for the year\/period<\/strong><\/td>36,227<\/strong><\/td>27,473<\/strong><\/td>33,779<\/strong><\/td>23,277<\/strong><\/td>7,614<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Optasia is heading to the JSE, with it looking to raise over R1 billion to support its growth. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":832814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[28,23769,499,27],"class_list":["post-839361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-mtn","tag-optasia","tag-standard-bank","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839361"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839368,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839361\/revisions\/839368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}