Standard Bank Eyes 4.99% Stake in OPay as Fintech Plans to List on New York Stock Exchange

Emmanuel Addeh, James Emejo in Abuja and Nume Ekeghe in Lagos 

South Africa’s Standard Bank Group is seeking to secure up to a 4.99 per cent stake in Nigerian-focused fintech OPay for a maximum investment of $200 million, placing a major African banking institution at the centre of the digital payments company’s proposed New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) listing.

The proposed investment comes as OPay’s financial performance accelerates, with revenue more than doubling in the first half of 2026 and net income rising sharply, according to its registration statement filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The transaction would give Standard Bank, which already operates in Nigeria through Stanbic IBTC Holdings, an equity position in one of the region’s largest digital financial services platforms while potentially opening new avenues for collaboration in payments, lending and cross-border transactions.

Stanbic Africa Holdings, a subsidiary of Standard Bank Group, has signed a subscription agreement to acquire shares through a private placement alongside OPay’s initial public offering (IPO), subject to completion of the offering and regulatory approvals.

Under the agreement disclosed in OPay’s Form F-1 registration statement, the investment will be capped at the lowest of $200 million, 0.98 per cent of Standard Bank Group’s qualifying regulatory capital, excluding unappropriated profit, or the value of a 4.99 per cent interest in OPay calculated at the IPO price.

The filing does not disclose the number of shares to be offered or the proposed price range.

Profits, transaction volumes strengthen investment case

OPay’s financial disclosures provide a clearer picture of the business attracting the South African lender.

Revenue climbed to $536.3 million in 2025 from $205.7 million in 2024, while the company swung from a net loss of $50.8 million to a net profit of $72.5 million over the period.

The momentum strengthened in the six months ended June 30, 2026, when revenue more than doubled to $467.1 million from the comparable period a year earlier. Net income rose to $90.9 million from $21.7 million.

The figures point to a rapid expansion in earnings alongside the growth of OPay’s payments and financial services business, although its dependence on Nigeria leaves it exposed to developments in the country’s regulatory and operating environment.

Nigeria accounted for 89.5 per cent of OPay’s revenue in the first half of 2026, according to the filing.

The company reported 50.1 million monthly active users at the end of July, while its gross transaction value reached $339.1 billion in the first half of the year. The latter measures the total value of payments, transactions and loans processed through its platform, rather than revenue earned from those activities.

OPay’s filing also stated that its active users in Nigeria were about 66.1 per cent of all active users of financial applications tracked by app-monitoring company DataSparkle during the first half of 2026.

The scale of its Nigerian operations highlights both the commercial opportunity available to Standard Bank and the concentration risk attached to the proposed investment.

Board representation, broader business ambitions

Beyond the equity investment, Standard Bank is positioning itself for a deeper commercial relationship with OPay.

The Standard Bank of South Africa is one of four representatives of the IPO underwriters, alongside Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and China International Capital Corporation. B Riley Securities and Needham & Company are acting as co-managers.

The filing further shows that Chief Executive of Standard Bank’s Africa Regions business and a former director-general of South Africa’s National Treasury, Lungisa Fuzile, will join OPay’s board as a non-executive director once the private placement closes. Fuzile previously led Standard Bank South Africa between 2018 and 2024.

The companies have also identified opportunities to explore digital banking services in African markets, distribute selected Standard Bank products through OPay’s application and merchant network, and collaborate on merchant acquiring, payments, lending, remittances and jointly developed financial products.

However, the proposed collaboration remains non-binding. A memorandum of understanding signed on August 14 does not compel either party to implement any particular initiative, with individual projects requiring definitive agreements and regulatory approvals.

Standard Bank Group Chief Executive, Sim Tshabalala, said the bank’s banking expertise and African footprint complemented OPay’s digital financial services platform and merchant ecosystem, creating potential to expand access to financial services and support cross-border commerce.

The proposed investment is consistent with Standard Bank’s broader growth strategy, which the group outlined at its recent capital markets day.

OPay has applied to list American depositary shares on the NYSE under the proposed ticker symbol OPAY. These securities represent interests in the company’s ordinary shares.

The offering’s valuation and final size remained undisclosed in the registration statement though earlier reports cited a potential valuation of about $4 billion. 

However, the filing does not establish that figure as the IPO valuation.

Founded in 2017 by Zhou Yahui, also known as James Zhou, in collaboration with Norwegian web browser company Opera, OPay launched its Nigerian payments operations in 2018 after acquiring a local financial services provider.

The company subsequently expanded into Indonesia, Egypt and Pakistan. In 2021, it raised $400 million in a funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 at a reported valuation of $2 billion.

Before the proposed offering, Zhou held 21.3 per cent of OPay, Opera owned 8.6 per cent and SoftBank held 6.6 per cent, according to the filing.

Despite its growth, OPay has identified regulatory intervention as a material risk, warning that authorities in its operating markets could impose temporary restrictions or suspend the onboarding of new customers.

Such measures could affect user acquisition, transaction growth and earnings, particularly given the company’s heavy reliance on Nigeria.

For Standard Bank, the proposed stake represents more than an investment in a fast-growing fintech, offering a potential route into a vast digital payments network, while tying part of that opportunity to the fortunes of Nigeria’s financial services market and the regulatory conditions governing its expansion.

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