OPay’s Wall Street debut lasted a day. The Nigerian fintech priced its NYSE IPO at $19 a share on Thursday, raising about $304 million at a valuation of roughly $4 billion. Trading was halted on Friday before a single share changed hands, and by Saturday the whole offering was off.
The reason OPay gave is a regulatory inquiry in a foreign jurisdiction it has not named. It says that jurisdiction is immaterial to its core business, that it expects the matter to be resolved soon, and that after talks with its underwriters pulling the deal was “the most prudent course of action”. It also insists the decision says nothing about its financial condition or its regulatory standing.
The story shifted during the day. According to Techpoint Africa, an earlier statement to ThisDay described a temporary trading hold while OPay obtained a regulatory “No-Objection” tied to the US listing, one it said falls outside Nigeria’s framework. A later statement said the offering would not be completed at all. Neither named the regulator or the subject of the inquiry.
- 9 Oct: OPay files its F-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
- 23 Oct: price range set at $19 to $21. Nine investors had indicated interest in up to $270 million of shares.
- 27 Oct: the NYSE certifies approval of the shares, under the ticker OPAY.
- 29 Oct: underwriting agreement signed. 16 million shares price at $19, the bottom of the range.
- 30 Oct: trading was due to start. The NYSE halts it around 3:30pm New York time with no trades executed. Early indications had the shares opening between $16.25 and $16.75, below the IPO price.
- 31 Oct: OPay says it has agreed with its underwriters to terminate the offering.
Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Standard Bank and CICC were the banks on the deal. Standard Bank’s Stanbic Africa Holdings had also agreed to buy up to $200 million in new shares through a private placement alongside the IPO, and the amended prospectus made that placement depend on the IPO closing. OPay’s statements did not say what happens to it. They also did not touch the planned secondary listing on the Nigerian Exchange, which its board and shareholders approved this month. SoftBank’s entities held 6.6% of the company going in.
What OPay does say is that nothing changes for customers. Its operations, regulatory standing and service in Nigeria and its other markets are unaffected. That matters, because Nigeria produced 89.5% of its revenue in the first half of 2026, and the company counts about 50 million monthly users as of July. Its gross transaction value reached $358 billion in 2025, up from $166.2 billion the year before, according to PM News.
There is still no word on which regulator is asking the questions, what happens to the money investors had committed, or when the offering might come back. OPay has not given a timeline.
