Splitit gains 90 pct on first day after Australia bourse IPO
(Reuters)#nbsp;— Splitit, which helps businesses with instalment payments, said on#nbsp;Tuesday it#nbsp;raised A$#nbsp;12 million ($#nbsp;8.6 million) in#nbsp;an#nbsp;initial public offering on#nbsp;the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
In#nbsp;its first day of#nbsp;ASX trading, the U.S.-Israeli company rose 90 percent to#nbsp;38 cents from its IPO price of#nbsp;20 cents that initially gave the firm a#nbsp;market value of A$#nbsp;54 million.
Splitit’s technology enables customers to#nbsp;pay for purchases with an#nbsp;existing debit or#nbsp;credit card by#nbsp;splitting the cost into interest and fee-free monthly payments.
Splitit said it#nbsp;intends to#nbsp;apply the funds from its capital raising to#nbsp;strengthen its sales and marketing to#nbsp;accelerate merchant acquisition and build distribution channels, as#nbsp;well as#nbsp;to#nbsp;penetrate additional markets and countries. Proceeds will also go#nbsp;toward developing next generation mobile solutions and a#nbsp;mobile wallet, it#nbsp;said.
The company is#nbsp;headquartered in#nbsp;New York and has an R&D center in#nbsp;Israel and offices in#nbsp;London, It#nbsp;said it#nbsp;plans to#nbsp;establish itself in#nbsp;Australia for its expansion into the Asia-Pacific region.