Westpac has sold its stake in Australian buy now, pay later firm Zip just days after entering into a relationship with POS financing rival Afterpay.
The Australian bank first bought into Zip in 2017, investing $40 million into the company. That was followed in 2019 with an $8.9 million topup into Zip's $42.8 million capital raising.
The shares were offloaded as a block at a 6.1 discount to the previous day's close, netting the bank $337 million for its original investment of $48.9 million.
Westpac chief information officer, Gary Thursby, says: “We are continuing to explore opportunities with Zip, including working to integrate their buy now pay later functionality into our mobile banking apps across Westpac and our Regional bank brands. This would expand our offering to customers and broaden the customers Zip can reach.
“We are also working with Zip on other opportunities for consumer, business, and corporate customers that we believe could be mutually beneficial, while continuing to develop our banking relationship with Zip.”
The sale follows the bank's new relationship with BNPL behemoth Afterpay, which became the first fintech hop on Westpac's new banking-as-a-service platform.
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