OPay, the fintech whose largest market is Nigeria, withdrew its planned $304 million initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, October 30, 2026, following a regulatory inquiry in an unidentified foreign jurisdiction. The company and its underwriters mutually terminated an underwriting agreement signed the previous day.
OPay had priced 16 million American depositary shares, or ADSs, at $19 each, the bottom of its proposed range. That put the expected gross offering at $304 million and implied a valuation of roughly $4 billion. The shares had been due to start trading on October 30 under the ticker “OPAY,” but trading never began.
In a statement provided to Nigerian financial publication Nairametrics, OPay said the inquiry concerns a jurisdiction that accounts for a limited part of its operations. It did not identify the country or describe the inquiry, while maintaining that its payment services continue to operate normally in Nigeria and its other markets.
Standard Bank investment tied to the listing
The transaction also included a proposed investment by Stanbic Africa Holdings, an affiliate of South Africa’s Standard Bank Group. OPay’s October 23 prospectus filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission described a private placement of up to $200 million, conditional on the completion of the IPO and relevant regulatory approvals. With the offering withdrawn, that condition for the parallel investment has not been met.
OPay had presented the listing as a way to finance its expansion. The same prospectus reported 50.1 million monthly active users as of July 31, 2026, including 26.8 million daily active users. Gross transaction value reached $558 billion over the 12 months ended June 30, 2026.