Australian investors bought the rumour today, with shares in buy-now-pay-later company Zip jumping 13.7% on media reports that Klarna, the 1000lb Swedish gorilla in the BNPL space, had taken a holding in the Aussie fintech.
Zip (ASX:Z1P) shares closed Thursday trade at $8.78, having startup the day at $7.70, giving the company a market capitalisation of $4.33 billion – a 10th of the worth of the privately-owned Swedish giant.
Klarna has reportedly nabbed a 4% stake in Zip, worth an estimated A$160 million, which remains below the 5% threshold for notifying the market it is a substantial shareholder.
Zip did not make any market announcements in response to the overnight report.
Klarna, the Commonwealth Bank-backed Swedish bank and payments fintech, raised A$1.3 billion in March this year to value the business at A$40 billion, making it the second most valuable fintech in the world.