Category: Stock Market

Tech shares on the S&P/ASX 200 Index (Index:^AXJO) have made a big comeback on Thursday, leaving investors wondering if the beaten down sector has reached a turning point.

The ASX 200 tech share index surged by over 4% when the broader share benchmark “only” managed a gain of 0.5%.

Some of the best known tech names led the gains. The WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC) share price jumped over 7%, Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) share price added 6.2% and Xero Limited (ASX: XRO) share price rallied more than 5%.

ASX 200 tech shares are following the leader higher

ASX 200 tech shares have found favour today after the Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ: .IXIC) delivered a strong showing last night.

The US tech composite gained 0.7% when the more general S&P 500 (INDEXSP: .INX) could only eke out a 0.3% advance.

The outperformance of our tech shares stand in sharp contrast to how they traded over the past year. Several of the one-time darlings are nursing big losses since January.

What has been eating ASX 200 tech shares?

This is largely because of US interest rate expectations. The Federal Reserve is poised to wind back its quantitative easing (QE) program. That’s also feeding expectations that it could start lifting interest rates sooner than expected.

The extra liquidity from QE and record low rates have benefitted risk assets. Any talk about these tailwinds being wound back will hit growth shares harder.

ASX 200 tech shares have essentially personified growth equity on our market. And it doesn’t help that our central bank is starting to take away the punch bowl from the party.

Australian rates could rise sooner than you’d think

The Reserve Bank of Australia is winding back QE, although it stated repeatedly that rates won’t rise till 2024.

But if the Fed raises rates soon, the RBA may be forced to sing a different tune. Such is the globalised world we live in where relative rates can be more important than actual rates.

Is the rally a dead cat bounce?

Given that the rate rise risk is not abating (in fact, some would argue it’s rising as the world can’t seem to shake inflation fears), is the recovery in ASX 200 tech shares a dead cat bounce?

Some would certainly argue this convincing point. But supporters of tech shares can take heart that there could be a more enduring reason for the rebound in the sector than just playing follow the NASDAQ leader.

If the risk of persistent inflation were to solidify further, the shares that tend to do best as those with pricing power.

A stronger tailwind for some ASX 200 tech shares

This means companies with a strong market position. They can increase prices without hurting demand for their products or services.

In many respects, some ASX 200 tech shares fit this bill. This is either because they have created such a “sticky” service where it would be costly or too inconvenient to swap to a rival. Or it may be because their offering is so innovative that nothing really comes close.

Mind you, not all of these shares have pricing power. And it isn’t a given that this trait would be enough to keep such shares rallying in the face of rate hikes.

The post Why ASX 200 tech shares have outperformed today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• Could the Appen (ASX:APX) share price jump to $17 by Christmas?
• These 3 ASX 200 shares are topping the volume charts this Thursday

Motley Fool contributor Brendon Lau has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended Appen Ltd, WiseTech Global, and Xero. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Appen Ltd, WiseTech Global, and Xero. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) share price closed higher on Thursday. This comes after the company revealed its latest efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

At the final bell, BHP shares were changing hands for $37.80, up 0.56%.

BHP on verge on striking a deal

BHP today advised it expects to enter into renewable energy supply arrangements with Iberdrola in the near future.

Founded in 1992, Iberdrola is a Spanish multinational electric utility company that is spearheading the development of green hydrogen. The energy business is aiming to meet demand for electrification and decarbonisation in sectors such as industry and heavy transport.

Under the deal, half of the energy needs for South Australia’s Olympic Dam will come from renewable sources by 2025. This will see the Olympic Dam reduce its emission position to zero for 50 per cent of its electricity consumption by 2025.

The energy will be supplied by Iberdrola, coming from the Port Augusta Renewable Energy Park in South Australia. Due to be completed in July 2022, this will become Australia’s largest solar-wind hybrid plant.

BHP noted it would be the primary customer of the new renewable facility once constructed. In turn, this is expected to help it achieve its medium-term target to reduce operational greenhouse gas emissions by 30% from FY20 levels by FY30.

BHP Olympic Dam asset president Jennifer Purdie commented:

These arrangements will support an exciting new renewable energy project which will contribute to South Australia’s renewable energy ambitions.

Olympic Dam’s copper has an important role to play to support global decarbonisation and the energy transition as an essential product in electric vehicles and renewable infrastructure. Reducing emissions from our operations will further enhance our position as a sustainable copper producer.

It’s worth noting that BHP entered into renewable energy agreements for its operations in Western Australia in 2021, Queensland in 2020, and Chile in 2019.

BHP share price summary

Over the past 12 months, BHP shares have moved in circles to post a small gain of 5%. However, the latest iron ore rout has led the company’s shares to fall by 10% this year.

BHP has a market capitalisation of roughly $112.6 million, with almost 3 billion shares on its books.

The post Own BHP (ASX:BHP) shares? Here’s the miner’s latest push to reduce emissions appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Thursday
• Why did the BHP (ASX:BHP) share price have such a lousy FY22 first quarter?
• Could the Woodside (ASX:WPL) share price hit $27.50 by the end of 2021?
• BHP (ASX:BHP) share price rises amid coal asset sale rumours
• ASX 200 (ASX:XJO) midday update: Westpac’s $1.3bn earnings hit, Ansell sinks

Motley Fool contributor Aaron Teboneras has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Novonix Ltd (ASX: NVX) share price surged higher today despite no news having been released by the company.

In fact, the last time the market heard price-sensitive news from Novonix was way back in August. But the silence seemingly hasn’t deterred the market from driving the company’s stock’s value higher.

As of Thursday’s close, the Novonix share price is $5.39, 5.89% higher than it was at Wednesday’s close.

Let’s take a look at what might have driven the Novonix share price today.

Quick refresher

Novonix is a battery and technology company that operates in two segments.

First, Novonix’s battery testing solutions develops battery testing equipment. It’s focused on using Ultra-High Precision Coulometry to help create reliable lifetime evaluation of lithium-ion cells.

Meanwhile, the company’s PUREgraphite business creates environmentally friendly graphite anode material for lithium-ion batteries.

What drove the Novonix on the ASX today?

There was no obvious reason for the rise in the Novonix share price today. However, it wasn’t alone in its gains. Many ASX battery material stocks were in the green today.

The share price of Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO), which is working to supply lithium to the battery and electric vehicle industry, surged 17% today.

Lithium-sulphur battery company, Li-S Energy Ltd (ASX: LIS), was also up 2.8%. Finally, lithium carbonate supplier and boron producer, Orocobre Limited (ASX: ORE) gained 2.2%.

Perhaps battery-focused shares were spurred on by the potential for Australia to set a net zero emissions target ahead of next month’s COP 26 UN Global Climate Conference.

According to reporting by SBS, the Liberals and Nationals are at odds over setting a net zero emissions target for 2050, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison pushing to get a plan in place before the Glasgow summit.

Such discussions could be bolstering interest in companies working in the climate-friendly battery sector.

Not to mention, Thursday was a good day on the broader market. The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) was up 0.7% and the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) gained 0.8%.

Novonix share price snapshot

Today’s gains are only the latest for the Novonix share price, which has been performing brilliantly on the ASX lately.

It has gained 334% since the start of 2021. It is also 376% higher than it was this time last year.

The post Why did the Novonix (ASX:NVX) share price leap 6% on Thursday? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

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• Which ASX 300 shares are on the move for the start of the week?
• Why is the Novonix (ASX:NVX) share price plunging 12% today?

Motley Fool contributor Brooke Cooper has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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Since 17 September 2021, the Pushpay Holdings Ltd (ASX: PPH) share price has fallen by around 6%.

The electronic donation ASX share has been going through a lot of change since the onset of COVID-19.

Investors may not know what to make of the business in the current environment.

Pushpay itself said it’s continuing to expect strong revenue growth in FY22 (and beyond) as continues to execute on its strategy to increase its market share, innovate its products, carry out acquisitions and expanding into the Catholic market.

What is Pushpay expecting in FY22?

In FY22, Pushpay said it was expecting to achieve earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation, foreign exchange and impairments (EBITDAFI) of between US$64 million to US$69 million. However, it said that uncertainties and impacts surrounding COVID-19 and the broader US economic environment remain.

But the above numbers include the impact of its plans to invest in the Catholic segment.

In the long-term, Pushpay is targeting to increase the appeal of its products to new customers and increase the revenue per customer through continued innovation, and acquisitions.

Pushpay’s Catholic initiative is its first step in investing to grow its customer base outside of its existing core base.

Management have set a goal of acquiring more than 25% of the Catholic church management system and donor management system market over the next five years.

The ASX share pointed out that the Catholic church is closely associated with many education providers and non-profit organisations, which can present further opportunities within the US and other international jurisdictions. Acquisitions also provide opportunities to expand the customer base and to deliver new products that can be sold into the existing customer base more rapidly than could be achieved organically.

Excluding the impact of the investment into the Catholic initiative, Pushpay said it was expecting to achieve EBITDAFI for FY22 from its business of between US$66 million to US$71 million.

What else has made headlines?

The Pushpay share price may also be impacted by the acquisition of Resi Media.

Resi Media is a US-based market-leading streaming solutions provider, servicing more than 70% of the Outreach 100 largest churches in the US.

Pushpay said this was a strategically compelling acquisition of a market-leading, faith-focused streaming platform to broaden its core product offering.

Management also said that this adds a further stream of high growth and high margin software as a service (SaaS) revenue. It also brings a large total addressable market across all church segments, non-profit organisations and other verticals.

Pushpay thinks this has material synergy opportunities through product cross-selling and integration with Pushpay’s sales and marketing engine.

In FY21, Resi Media had $12.9 million of annual recurring revenue (ARR), with 101% revenue growth. It had a total of 3,374 customers, with 314% customer growth compared to FY20. The net revenue retention rate was more than 100%.

The post Why is the Pushpay (ASX:PPH) share price struggling lately? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended PUSHPAY FPO NZX. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended PUSHPAY FPO NZX. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The HUB24 Ltd (ASX: HUB) share price was in exceptionally strong form on Thursday.

The investment platform provider’s shares were up as much as 11% to a record high of $31.83 at one stage.

The HUB24 share price ultimately ended the day with a gain of almost 9% to $31.25.

Why did the HUB24 share price rocket higher?

Investors were bidding the HUB24 share price higher today after the release of a very strong first quarter update.

According to the release, the company achieved record first quarter funds under administration (FUA) net inflows of $3 billion. This brought its total FUA to $63.2 billion, which is an increase of 229.1% over the prior corresponding period.

This was driven by a 139% jump in platform FUA to $45.4 billion and Portfolio, Administration and Reporting Services (PARS) FUA of $17.8 billion. The latter business was acquired from Ord Minnett in December 2020 and therefore was not part of the company in the prior corresponding period.

Netwealth also impresses

It wasn’t just HUB24 that delivered strong growth in the first quarter. The Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX: NWL) share price also surged higher today following the release of its own quarterly update. This appears to have given investor sentiment in the industry a real boost today.

According to its release, Netwealth reported record net inflows of $4 billion for the quarter. This took Netwealth’s FUA to $52 billion, which represents an increase of 52.7% over the prior corresponding period and 10.2% quarter on quarter.

Is the HUB24 share price a buy?

Earlier this week the team at Credit Suisse put an outperform rating and $34.00 price target on the company’s shares.

Based on the current HUB24 share price of $31.25, this still implies potential upside of almost 9% for investors.

And it is worth noting that the broker has yet to respond to this and could amend its price target higher (or lower) in the coming days once it has run the rule over this update.

This could make it worth keeping a close eye on HUB24 shares.

The post Why the HUB24 (ASX:HUB) share price jumped 11% to a record high today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• Why A2 Milk, HUB24, Netwealth & Perseus shares are storming higher
• ASX 200 (ASX:XJO) midday update: HUB24 & Netwealth impress, A2 Milk surges again
• HUB24 (ASX:HUB) share price on watch after record Q1 performance
• These were the worst performing ASX 200 shares last week

Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended Hub24 Ltd and Netwealth. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Netwealth. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Hub24 Ltd. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The WAM Capital Ltd (ASX: WAM) share price has enjoyed a pretty fabulous day of trading on the ASX boards this Thursday.

At first glance, WAM’s gain of 0.42% to $2.39 a share doesn’t seem that noteworthy. It didn’t even do as well as the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO), which closed up 0.54% to 7,311 points.

But when you consider that $2.39 is WAM Capital’s 52-week high, you can understand why some WAM Capital shareholders might be in a celebratory mood today.

It comes after Wilson Asset Management (the WAM in WAM Capital) released its latest investment update. Wilson releases an update for all of its listed investment companies (LICs), including WAM Capital, every month.

And today, the update for September dropped at around midday.

What did Wilson say about WAM?

To kick things off, Wilson reported that WAM Capital’s net tangible assets (NTA) per share stood at $1.98. That’s up around half a percentage point from the $1.97 per share that this LIC reported last month for August.

Since they are what’s known as closed-ended investment vehicles, an LIC can either trade at a premium or a discount to its underlying NTA. Usually, LICs with a strong performance history or high dividend yields command a premium. Conversely, LICs that don’t enjoy as much investor confidence can trade at a discount.

We can probably put WAM Capital in the former camp. That’s because even though WAM Capital only had $1.98 in assets per share as of 30 September, it was trading with a share price of $2.37.

At today’s price of $2.38, this LIC now has a premium to its underlying NTA of around 20%.

WAM also told investors that WAM Capital managed to outperform the All Ordinaries Total Accumulation Index (ASX: XAOA) over September. It also announced that it has added to its profit reserve (from which it pays out dividends).

This LIC now has 28.2 cents per share in its reserve. That’s up from 27.9 cents last month. Since WAM Capital’s annual dividend is sitting at 15.5 cents per share, this indicates WAM has enough gas in the tank to fund it for at least another 12-18 months.

Some of the companies this LIC is currently invested in include Pact Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: PGH), Virgin Money UK (ASX: VUK), Aristocrat Leisure Limited (ASX: ALL), and Carsales.com Ltd (ASX: CAR).

At the current WAM Capital share price, this LIC has a market capitalisation of $2.09 billion. It also has a dividend yield of 6.5%.

The post WAM Capital (ASX:WAM) share price hits 52-week high amid investment update appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Sebastian Bowen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended carsales.com Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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Today, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) broke its losing streak with a green session. The benchmark index climbed 0.54% to 7,311.7 points.

There was plenty of gains to be had across the top 200 on Thursday. Though, the most substantial increases were seen in tech shares and miners. Meanwhile, oil producers underperformed as the price for the commodity took a hit overnight.

However, the question is: which shares delivered the biggest returns to investors on the ASX today? Here are the ten stocks that rose to the occasion:

Top 10 ASX shares countdown today

Looking at the top 200 listed companies, Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX: NWL) was the biggest gainer today. Shares in the financial management platform ascended 15.89%. This impressive performance followed a positive quarterly update from the company, showing record net inflows. Find out more about Netwealth Group here.

The next biggest gaining ASX share today was Liontown Resources Ltd (ASX: LTR). The minerals explorer with exposure to lithium rallied 14.29% despite no announcements from the company. Uncover the latest Liontown Resources details here.

Today’s top 10 biggest gains were made in these ASX shares:

ASX-listed company	Share price	Price change
Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX: NWL)	$16.56	15.89%
Liontown Resources Ltd (ASX: LTR)	$1.60	14.29%
Wisetech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC)	$53.73	7.61%
Megaport Ltd (ASX: MP1)	$17.70	6.82%
Novonix Ltd (ASX: NVX)	$5.38	5.70%
Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS)	$2.07	5.61%
Xero Ltd (ASX: XRO)	$143.22	5.41%
South32 Ltd (ASX: S32)	$3.84	5.21%
Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX: EVN)	$3.91	5.11%
Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX: LYC)	$6.81	4.93%

Our top 10 ASX shares today countdown is a recurring end-of-day summary to ensure you know which companies were making big moves on the day. Check-in at Fool.com.au after the market has closed during weekdays to see which stocks make the countdown.

The post Here are the top 10 ASX shares today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

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Motley Fool contributor Mitchell Lawler owns shares of Lynas Corporation Limited. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended MEGAPORT FPO, Netwealth, WiseTech Global, and Xero. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Netwealth, WiseTech Global, and Xero. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended MEGAPORT FPO. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Blackmores Limited (ASX: BKL) share price is edging 1.23% higher in late afternoon trade today. Shares are now changing hands at $97.73 apiece.

That’s a shade off the health supplements giant’s 52-week closing high of $99.80 on 31 August, despite no market-sensitive information out of the company.

What’s happening with Blackmores?

There’s nothing remarkable that may directly explain the gains in the Blackmores share price today.

However, Blackmores shareholders have endured a bumpy ride these past 2 months, after reports surfaced of an internal dispute between its key stakeholders.

Apparently, Blackmores’ biggest shareholder, Marcus Blackmore, is unhappy with how the board’s chairperson, Anne Templema-Jones, is guiding the company, and the decision not to appoint former Pharmacy Guild president George Tambassis to the board.

Blackmore is also reportedly seeking more diversity on the board. Additonally, he wants more inclusion from the pharmaceutical industry, given around 75% of its products are sold through Australian pharmacies.

As such, the almost 20% owner of the company is threatening to vote against the re-election of Templeman-Jones as chair.

Now it appears Blackmores is back on the offensive, with reports surfacing it has engaged proxy solicitation firm Georgeson as mediator ahead of its AGM later this month.

According to reporting from The Australian, Georgeson has been contacting Blackmores’ shareholders to request their voting intentions.

This comes alongside a discrepancy where Tambassis is unable to obtain the email addresses and phone numbers of the company’s shareholders, in order to advocate for his election.

According to Blackmores, it doesn’t store this data – only the postal addresses of its shareholders.

And the divide between the Blackmores name bearer and its chairperson is increasingly obvious when peeling back the layers.

Templeman-Jones purportedly engaged a recruitment firm to rebuild the company’s board. On the other hand, Blackmore has engaged investment banking advisory firm Rothschild for the matter.

Each corner holds a different view on where to steer the company, and this is sure to play out at the Blackmores’ AGM on 27 October.

Blackmores share price snapshot

The Blackmores share price has climbed 29% this year to date. This comes after it jumped by $22 a share in just over a week back in August.

It’s rallied 7.5% over the past month, which has bought its return in the last year to 49%.

These returns are each well ahead of the S&P/ASX 200 index (ASX: XJO)’s climb of around 19% in that time.

The post Blackmores (ASX:BKL) share price lifts as boardroom battle heats up appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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The author Zach Bristow has no positions in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended Blackmores Limited. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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The Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) share price is up 2%. To put that into context, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is also up 0.95%.

However, there is reporting by Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd (ASX: NEC) that Rio Tinto is considering a green push.

How is Rio Tinto considering going greener?

The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that Rio Tinto is investigating using biomass to replace coal in the steelmaking process. Coal has a reputation of producing a lot of emissions.

There has apparently been years of research and now it is testing the process, which is patent-pending, that combines raw plant matter with microwave technology to remove oxygen from iron ore and turn it into metallic iron.

If this test is successful, then there is the potential for it to be “developed at commercial scale to help drive down the greenhouse gases emitted by the carbon-heavy steel mills.”

According to the SMH reporting, the biomass would count as carbon neutral because the “carbon dioxide released during combustion would initially have been absorbed from the atmosphere during a plant’s lifetime.”

Rio Tinto iron ore chief executive Simon Trott was quoted by the SMH:

We are encouraged by early testing results of this new process, which could provide a cost-efficient way to produce low-carbon steel from our Pilbara iron ore.

More than 70 per cent of Rio Tinto’s Scope 3 emissions are generated as customers process our iron ore into steel, which is critical for urbanisation and infrastructure development as the world’s economies decarbonise. While it’s still early days…we are keen to explore further development of this technology.

How else is Rio Tinto planning to go greener?

The Rio Tinto share price may be influenced in the future by its Jadar project.

It has committed $2.4 billion to the lithium-borates project in Serbia, one of the world’s largest greenfield lithium projects. However, it remains subject to receiving all relevant, approvals, permits and licences.

Rio Tinto said that the Jadar project would scale up Rio Tinto’s exposure to battery materials, and demonstrate the company’s commitment to investing capital in a disciplined manner to further strengthen its portfolio for the global energy transition.

Jadar will position Rio Tinto as the largest source of lithium supply in Europe for at least the next 15 years. In addition, Jadar will produce borates, which are used in solar panels and wind turbines.

This could be a very large investment for Serbia, contributing 1% directly and 4% indirectly to GDP. The mine has a 40-year life.

First saleable production is expected in 2026 at a time of strong market fundamentals for lithium, demand is expected to grow by an average of 25% to 35% per annum over the next decade. Full production will occur in 2029, where it will produce around 58,000 tonnes of lithium. This will make Rio Tinto one of the top ten lithium producers in the world.

The post Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) share price climbs amid news of latest green push appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

More reading

• These 3 ASX 200 shares are topping the volume charts this Thursday
• ASX 200 (ASX:XJO) midday update: HUB24 & Netwealth impress, A2 Milk surges again
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Thursday
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Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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If you own Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) shares, it can be useful to check in on what peers are up to in the buy now, pay later (BNPL) space.

While the payments company headed up by Nick Molnar and Anthony Eisen might be one of the most recognisable BNPL players, there are smaller competitors sprouting — putting their own spin on things. One such company is the brand-first payment platform provider, Limepay.

At present, the Afterpay share price is fetching $120.90, up 4.68% from its previous close.

A different take on BNPL

In a media release yesterday, Limepay announced the appointment of a new CEO in Willie Pang. From here, Pang will lead the company as it embarks on its renewed business strategy.

Limepay is a little different from your stereotypical ASX-listed BNPL company. For starters, it isn’t publically listed — but more importantly — it offers a white-label solution. This means merchants can provide alternative payments without redirecting customers to a third party such as Afterpay.

In fact, in the July 2021 FT Partners’ Fintech Industry Research Report, Limepay was named the only white-label BNPL provider in the Oceania region.

The distinction is something that the smaller BNPL competitor is proud of, with a different business vision than most. Unlike others, Limepay wants to put the control, knowledge, and ownership of the customer back in the hands of brands. However, Afterpay shares appear unfazed today as the price rallies.

Commenting on his recent appointment, Limepay CEO Willie Pang stated:

Limepay has always set out to do something different; to flip the digital payments landscape on its head. Our broader mission is to empower brands to build longer, stronger and ultimately more loyal customer relationships.

We now have a renewed commitment to providing solutions beyond BNPL – including pay in full, pay later, pay in installments, subscription and in-store options – so brands can own the entire payments experience for their customers.

We know that Afterpay’s growth has been considerable, typically doubling across most of its metrics year on year. So, how does Limepay’s growth stack up against the ASX-listed giant? Well, the release indicates that underlying merchant sales grew by 1,100% year-over-year in FY21. As of now, Limepay boasts over 100 active merchants including Puma, EB Games, and Ecosa.

Could Limepay join Afterpay shares on the ASX?

Interestingly, Limepay was set for an initial public offering (IPO) to list on the ASX earlier in the year. However, those plans were muddied after co-founder and chief revenue officer, Daniel Peters, resigned suddenly after raising nearly $30 million in venture capital.

Since then, Limepay’s financial adviser noted that the company would apply a “wait and see approach” to joining Afterpay shares on the ASX. Although, yesterday’s release gave no additional detail regarding a future listing.

The post Own Afterpay (ASX:APT) shares? This little-known company is aiming to disrupt the BNPL sector appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Mitchell Lawler owns shares of AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. owns shares of and has recommended AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool Australia owns shares of and has recommended AFTERPAY T FPO. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Bruce Jackson.

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