Nigerian payments company OPay has abandoned its planned $304 million listing on the New York Stock Exchange, in a striking reversal that came after the shares were priced but before any of them changed hands.
OPay and its underwriters mutually agreed on 31 October to terminate the underwriting agreement signed on 29 October, the company said in a statement. The American depositary shares will not begin trading as scheduled, and the offering will not be completed.
The company had priced 16 million depositary shares at $19 each, the bottom of its $19 to $21 marketed range, implying a valuation of about $4 billion. The shares were due to trade under the ticker OPAY, with the deal scheduled to close on 2 November.
Trading never got under way. On 30 October the New York Stock Exchange halted the stock with news pending in the afternoon, and early indications had pointed to an opening price below the offer price, between $16.25 and $16.75. No trades were executed.
OPay blamed a regulatory inquiry in a foreign jurisdiction, which it described as immaterial to its core operations. It did not name the country, the regulator or the subject of the inquiry, and that part of the explanation rests solely on the company’s own statement and remains unverified.
The company said it expects the matter to be resolved satisfactorily in the near future, but concluded after discussions with its underwriters that not proceeding with the offering at this time was the most prudent course of action. It insisted the decision did not reflect on its business performance, financial condition or regulatory standing.
The collapse also puts on hold a planned private placement of up to $200 million from Stanbic Africa Holdings, a Standard Bank Group unit, which had been tied to the closing of the IPO. The underwriting banks included Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Standard Bank and China International Capital Corporation.
OPay said its day-to-day services are unaffected. The company, founded by Chinese billionaire Yahui Zhou and backed by SoftBank, operates in Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia, where its app is used for transfers, bill payments and point-of-sale transactions. It had also been considering a secondary listing on the Nigerian Exchange, but has given no new timetable for that plan.
The episode is a rare example of a priced initial public offering being pulled before trading, and it will be watched closely by other African technology companies weighing a New York debut. For investors, the distinction matters: a price was set and a ceremony held, but no shares traded and no IPO proceeds were received.
Sources: OPay statement as reported by Billionaires.Africa (https://www.billionaires.africa/2026/10/31/chinese-billionaire-yahui-zhous-nigerian-fintech-opay-pulls-304-million-new-york-ipo/), TechBooky (https://www.techbooky.com/opay-cancels-304m-new-york-ipo-before-trading-begins/) and MoreBranches (https://www.morebranches.com/opay-pulls-nyse-ipo/).
