Openpay Group Ltd Quarterly Update and Appendix 4C

Openpay delivers continued strong growth in core business whilst setting the strategic foundations for step-change growth in the US and UK (target US launch in early October 2021)

Key Highlights

• Strong growth delivered across the following leading indicators in Q4 FY21:- Active Plans hit 2.0m, up 141%, vs pcp (prior comparable period: June 20) - Active Customers of 541k up 69% relative to pcp with 51% of Active Customers from UK, even before anticipated customer injection from Payment Assist acquisition- Highest-ever 84% of new plans from Repeat Customers, 53% of Active Customers with multiple plans - Active Merchants of 3.8k up 77% relative to pcp – the highest increase of new Active Merchants number on record - Maintained strong volume growth dynamic, with an increase in TTV, up 46% vs pcp to $92m, even before adding significant Payment Assist transaction volumes 
• Opy USA going live in the world's largest developed BNPL market in early October 2021, anchored by integration with large wholesale merchant aggregators and key strategic partnerships in our preferred core verticals of Healthcare, Automotive and Home Improvement
• Payment Assist acquisition will further accelerate UK growth and entrench Openpay's position as a global leader in the BNPL Automotive vertical
• Significant platform partnerships signed with global and local ecommerce providers, including Adobe, Quest Payment Systems, One Step Checkout, Shopwired, Aero Commerce and Apparel 21 to drive future growth at scale across all key verticals
• Significant funding package approved by shareholders, raising $37.5m equity via an oversubscribed institutional placement, $25m debt facility, and an $8.7m share purchase plan, providing a strong cash position into FY22
• Key C-Suite promotions in Australia coupled with further recruitment of highly experienced US executive team members in readiness for US launch
• Online investor briefing webinar be held today at 2:30pm AEST.

MELBOURNE, Australia, July 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- 'Buy now. Pay smarter.' company, Openpay Group Ltd (ASX: OPY) (Openpay or the Company) is pleased to release its quarterly business update for the period ended 30 June 2021 (Q4 FY21).

Openpay CEO, Michael Eidel commented: "The June quarter was perhaps the most pivotal for Openpay since we announced our US launch in December. Headlining the quarter was our acquisition of leading UK BNPL Auto provider, Payment Assist. The combination of their strong, profitable franchise in Auto with our organic launch in Healthcare in June creates a formidable player in the UK BNPL market with significant growth synergies.

We are putting the finishing touches on our launch into the US market, targeting go-live in our key Healthcare vertical in early October 2021. This will present another major step forward for Openpay and the first of many very significant commercial opportunities for Opy USA.

These landmark organic and inorganic achievements provide the market with even more clarity into Openpay's strategic focus on specialised verticals and highlight our strong global growth and path to profitability."

Steady growth across all leading indicators, UK Active Customers overtake Australia

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Active Plans increased 141% vs pcp and 16% QoQ – reaching 2.0m, driven by the continued recovery of bricks and mortar growth rates in Openpay's specialised verticals (particularly Healthcare and Automotive). Openpay's plan mix is comparatively longer-term and higher value with 90% of TTV from plans three months or longer during Q4 FY21.

An Active Customer growth rate of 69% vs pcp was achieved at an aggregate level across all merchant verticals, and Openpay finished the quarter with 541k Active Customers. 51% of Active Customers were from the UK. Strong customer engagement and awareness led to the highest-ever percentage of plans being held by repeat customers at 84%, with more than every second customer holding multiple concurrent plans.

Overall, Active Merchants grew by 77% vs pcp to 3.8k as at Q4 FY21 and by 11% QoQ, helped by Openpay's automated Merchant onboarding system. New integrations with eCommerce platforms and point of sale provider partnerships also contributed to the strongest y-o-y growth in number of Active Merchants on record.

Crystalising our global strategy: 'Think global. Act local.'

With the strong progress in the UK and USA, Openpay's first two overseas markets, the Company is consolidating in its strategy to truly focus on verticals where its longer, larger and customised plans make a true difference and provide a significantly differentiated offering from most providers who predominantly focus on 'pay-in-4'.

Team changes to drive strategy on global and local levels

A catalyst for success is having the organisational structure in place to deliver with strong local teams on Openpay's global strategy. Several team moves have been put in place to support Openpay's strong continued business growth and advance its global mission of 'changing the way people pay, for the better'.Michael Eidel remains the company's Group CEO, leading on global strategic execution as the Company continues to expand in Australia/New Zealand and push into UK and US.

Dion Appel has been appointed CEO ANZ, stepping up from Chief Commercial Officer to assume the responsibility for the Australia and New Zealand business, driving growth, innovation and partnerships within the region.

Ed Bunting has been appointed new Group Chief Operating Officer (and will also continue as General Counsel and Company Secretary), and Theresa Abela has been appointed Chief Risk & Compliance Officer.

Global partnership with Adobe Exchange enables merchant acquisition at scale

Openpay has been accredited as a global Accelerate partner in the Adobe Exchange Partner Program. As an Accelerate partner, Openpay's offering will be marketed directly to Adobe Commerce and Magento Open-Source customers around the world. These platforms are currently servicing thousands of merchants in Openpay's key markets.

Adobe Exchange is a robust eCommerce platform that blends digital commerce, order management, and predictive intelligence to enable online shopping across a wide array of industries and business models (B2C, B2B and hybrid). Adobe offers an enterprise-level, cloud-hosted application, Adobe Commerce, and a free ecommerce solution, Magento Open Source, that services the needs of companies of all sizes with flexible, digital commerce solutions to successfully enable transactions across channels.

Openpay's instalment payment platform is available now in Australia, UK and US for merchants to register for the new digital payment capabilities.

Openpay AU: Achieving scale through platform partnerships across all verticals

Going live with Quest Payment Systems and Apparel 21 through Payment terminals and POS

Through the quarter, Openpay continued to sign and integrate with major platform and aggregator partners to enable merchants to simply "switch on" Openpay as a payment type. This strategy is designed to deliver transaction volume and merchant growth at scale (rather than signing up merchants one-by-one).

An Australian partnership was signed with Quest Payment Systems, enabling Openpay to become a tender type (alternative payment option) on the payment terminals throughout Quest's merchant base which is aligned to Retail, Healthcare and Home Improvement verticals.

Openpay will partner with Apparel 21, the leading POS vendor in Australia and New Zealand in retail and fashion. Apparel 21 provides payment solutions to over 120 brands, representing more than AUD $6b in annual turnover. Under the agreement, Openpay will be made available as an opt-in payment solution to Apparel 21 merchant customers.

Openpay further strengthens its leadership position in the Australian Automotive vertical

The exclusive integration of Openpay's product offering into Pentana Solutions' leading Car Dealer Management System, eraPower has been completed for car servicing at dealerships. This now provides unparalleled access to the more than 2,600 car dealerships for car repairs, services and accessories many of which operate on the eraPower platform (representing approximately 60% of the total Australian dealership market.) This rollout delivers mutual benefits to Openpay and the dealership market. In Q4, Openpay's average plan size in the dealerships segment of Automotive was $859, a 91% uplift compared with other (non BNPL) payment options, enabling safer cars to be back on the road sooner.

More significant partnerships in other verticals

Healthcare

Our Healthcare vertical remains a core strategic focus. During the quarter this was further strengthened as follows:

• Following the recent announcement of Openpay's entry into the hospital segment with St John of God Healthcare, Openpay has been gaining strong momentum in the hospital sector, having recently signed an agreement with Self Pay Surgery who are backed by one of the largest healthcare providers in Australia, Healthe Care. Strong engagement continues with several other key hospital groups.
• Openpay has been selected to become VetPartners' preferred BNPL provider and will be rolling out to their network of over 240 practices in FY22.
• Openpay signed an agreement with Optical Growth Partners to be utilised by their expanding network; the buying group and managed services offering for all independent optometry practices in Australia.
• A partnership was signed with Australian Medical Association (WA) to support Openpay's growth in hospitals and with medical specialists.

Retail

Openpay continues to increase its growth in Retail with significant retail vertical merchant partnership signings through the June quarter including major retailers, Samsung, Mountain Designs, Harris Scarfe, City Beach and Associated Retailer Limited (ARL), which owns Toyworld and Sportspower; as well as Nourished Life, Oz Hair and Beauty and AMR Beauty.

Memberships

In Memberships, Openpay continued its growth, particularly in sports, through additional signed merchants including AFL clubs, Richmond, St Kilda, Fremantle Dockers and Brisbane Lions.

Education

In the Education vertical, Connect Skills (Real Estate training), Inspirited Solutions (Wellbeing Education), and Maintraining (Course Creation Specialists) all signed on in the June quarter. In addition to the cash flow benefits, education providers find Openpay's BNPL services help convert sales and deliver a large reduction in payment collections administration.

OpyPro B2B SaaS platform update

OpyPro, Openpay's differentiated B2B SaaS platform continued to deliver strong growth with Woolworths Group. Transactions have grown substantially month on month whilst we continue to onboard their trade business customers to the platform which is now functioning instore and online.

In partnership with Lumi, Openpay is now also able to offer a funded B2B solution, OpyPro + Credit. This partnership enables the platform to deliver end-to-end payment experiences, including funding for the merchant's B2B customer should they want to include this in the offering beyond Openpay's core B2B SaaS solution.

The OpyPro pipeline of new partnerships is maturing with new B2B partnerships expected to be announced early in Q1 FY22.

Openpay UK outstrips AU in total Active Customers

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New UK partnerships place Openpay in front of thousands of new merchants

The UK strengthened its Retail offering during the June quarter, going live with well-known brands including Monsoon and Accessorize, Maplin, Dartington Crystal, The Hut and Glossybox as well as bigger ticket retail brands including Snug sofas and Decorating Centre Online where our longer length, higher value plans provide UK consumers with a budgeting tool to manage their cashflow for home improvement. Sport continues to be a winning formula for the UK, with team additions including Oldham Athletic, Charlton Athletic FC, Northampton Town FC, Coventry City FC and RedBull E-sports.

The UK's move into Healthcare, through its integration with ezyVet veterinary software platform, continues strong momentum with its 'Buy now. Pay smarter.' payment plans being made available in store to consumers from early FY22 through a recent signing with Pennard Vets veterinary group.

Openpay UK has also signed key partnerships and integrations with a number of ecommerce platform providers:

One Step Checkout, the leading Magento extension that simplifies checkout to reduce cart abandonment and improve checkout conversion and works with over 20,000 global Magento 1&2 Merchants, facilitating more than $8b in annual transaction volume. Openpay AU and UK are now fully integrated as part of the One Step Checkout system.

Openpay has signed an integration partnership with Shopwired, one of the UK's fastest growing and best-rated ecommerce platforms. Shopwired provides ecommerce services to over 8,500 UK SME merchants. Under the agreement, Openpay will be the exclusive recommended BNPL partner. Integration is due to complete in early August, with potential to expand to other markets in future.

Openpay is also now fully integrated with Aero Commerce, a fast-growing open-code ecommerce platform. Via this channel, Openpay is being offered to the multiple merchants using the Aero ecommerce platform.

These partnerships add to Openpay's strong and growing list of agreements with ecommerce platforms and payment processors. Integration has either been deployed or is expected to be completed across all agreements during the current quarter, Q1 FY22.

Highly material acquisition^[1] of Payment Assist

In June, Openpay announced that it will acquire 100% of Payment Assist, the leading BNPL provider to the UK automotive sector, fast tracking Openpay's entry into the UK Automotive vertical at scale.

Payment Assist was founded in 2013 in the UK and has served around 500,000 customers with easy payment plans for automotive servicing and repair. It is currently available at more than 7,000 locations across the UK and has 177,000 Active Customers. In CY 2020[2], Payment Assist achieved a Total Transaction Value of £78.1m, up 26% on CY2019 and is targeting TTV of £105.3m in CY 2021. With a total addressable market of £26.7 billion per annum[3] across 42,000 UK garages, the acquisition provides Openpay with significant expansion and scale opportunity in the automotive vertical and beyond.

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The clear synergies flowing from the transaction are expected to more than double Openpay Group's Active Merchants, increase its Active Customer base by a third and increase global TTV and revenue roughly by half. Contingent upon change in control approval from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), successful completion also provides Openpay with FCA authorisation, which is consistent with Openpay's responsible approach and strategy to enter the regulated credit market. Completion is currently anticipated to occur in Q2 FY22.

From a global strategic perspective, this transaction is another deliberate and important stepping-stone for Openpay to become a leader in its chosen verticals, primed for longer, larger and more customised payment plans, with a very healthy, best in class revenue yield. Importantly, and in keeping with Openpay's global strategy, the automotive segment brings a significantly lower exposure to credit and fraud risk than fast moving, small ticket retail.

The combined entity provides the market a clearer view into Openpay's strategic focus. The Payment Assist acquisition demonstrates Openpay's differentiation from its peers in the 'pay-in-4' space and highlights the strong global growth and path to profitability of Openpay.

Going live with Opy USA – getting ready to kick off in early October 2021

Openpay has continued to localise the Opy platform and systems, positioning it in the world's largest developed market as the next generation BNPL product. Openpay is pleased to announce that it is targeting to go live in early October 2021.

A cohesive US entry program has been designed with our differentiated longer terms, larger value and customised payment plans, built around a model to scale quickly with strategic aggregator partnerships as shown by Openpay's partnership with world-leading payments provider Worldpay from FIS, which was announced in late March 2021. Following extensive collaboration with Opy's Merchant Advisory Group of US business leaders, our US product will be a highly competitive interest free, significantly lower cost alternative to credit cards and longer duration BNPL peers that commonly charge compounding interest with annualised percentage rates as high as 36%.

This major differentiator is expected to attract financially savvy consumers and the merchants that serve them. In addition, with plan terms up to 24 months, limits of up to US-$20,000, and plan designs tailored to specific verticals, OpyPay further differentiates itself. This is a combination that merchants and consumers have been demanding and left a gap in the U.S. market until the introduction of OpyPay.

Opy has built a large pipeline of banking and funding partners, wholesale merchant aggregators aligned with our key verticals (Healthcare, Automotive, etc) as well as ecosystem partners (processors, banks, card networks), with further key strategic partnerships expected to be announced in Q1 FY22. Many of those are industry leading companies who are in advanced stages of planning Opy pilots and controlled roll outs to launch in H1 FY22. Openpay looks forward to providing further updates on its US market entry.

Openpay has also continued to complement its strong US executive leadership team, including the recruitment of targeted Opy vertical leads to bring extensive experience and networks to further penetrate Opy's presence in the nascent longer duration US BNPL market. With an emphasis on entering core verticals the team will focus on healthcare, automotive services and repair, home improvement, as well as deeper channel partnerships.

These recruits include:

Mike Kimbell joins as Senior VP, Head of U.S. Healthcare for Opy. Mike brings 20 years in Healthcare overall with 15 most recently at the patient financing leader in the U.S. – Synchrony Financial and CareCredit, as a consultative leader working directly with doctor owners, teams and industry partners.

Glenn Drake is the Senior Vice President and Head of Automotive and Mobility Business Development and Strategy for Opy. For almost twenty years, Glenn has developed and executed sales and marketing strategies for Jaguar Land Rover North America.

Michele Raneri is Opy's SVP, Head of Data and Consumer Credit Product where she has been researching, negotiating, and delivering the best scores and data in the market that are required for Opy's MVP strategy.  She has been in risk and analytics for over 3 decades, including VP of Analytics and Business Development at Experian, and led Database Management and Risk Analytics at Citi Cards and Citi Mortgage. 

Mike Smith joins Opy as Senior VP, US Head of Risk. Mike brings 30 years of experience in Financial Services focused on risk management, lending and leveraging data, technology and advanced analytics. Most recently served as SVP, Credit Agile Transformation and Strategic Initiatives for Synchrony Financial. Prior to Synchrony Financial, Mike held a variety of Executive Risk Management roles for GE Capital.

The effort to Americanise the existing platform is well underway. Regulatory requirements as well as US-specific preferences are being added to the platform and readied for the above noted pilots and roll outs.

Quality of earnings and Financial Position

In Q4 FY21, Openpay successfully closed a ~$71.2m funding package, which was approved by shareholders at a General Meeting on 10 May 2021. This funding comprises an institutional placement of $37.5m, a corporate debt facility of $25m, and a share purchase plan (SPP), which closed oversubscribed through the June quarter at $8.7m. The funding will support the Group to continue investment in its strong growth trajectory in Australia, the UK, and now also within the USA where progress toward launch preparedness is on track with funders and regulatory licensing partners anticipated to support the early October 2021 launch.

Quality of earnings within the quarter remained sound with revenue yields stabilising, with an overall return of 7.6% for the year, and expected improvements in portfolio arrears after early-stage loss experience being noted in the UK portfolio. This will translate into an improved positive net transaction margin (NTM) during the first half of FY22.

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Openpay funding runway strengthened on the back of recent successful raise, resulting in a June 2021 cash balance of $52.1m, which when combined with undrawn funding lines of $162.1m, equates to an overall funding headroom of $214.2m. The Group remains well funded, with a pro-active approach to supporting efficient global portfolio growth.

TTV growth continued throughout FY21 at a y-o-y rate of +46% for the fourth quarter, and at a yearly growth rate of +77%. Step change TTV growth is anticipated to be registered during Q2 FY22 when Payment Assist, UK healthcare, and US volumes are expected to be delivered for all or most of the quarter.

Market-leading revenue margins landed at 6.5% for the quarter, and 7.6% for the year. The Group maintains a longer-term objective of 9.0%+ that will be delivered through a strong presence within specialised verticals globally, including Payment Assist in the UK, and a growing B2B portfolio.

Portfolio performance showed reversion to expected and accepted loss outcomes during Q4 FY21, through significantly improving arrears levels to 2.8%, resulting in a 4.0% net bad debt rate. This translates to a FY21 loss rate of 2.8%, mostly attributable to the largest enterprise merchant in the UK and early-stage portfolio performance within the region. This is temporary, and the portfolio loss rate will fall well within the 2.5% level by Q1 FY22.

Outlook – doubling down in FY22

With these significant achievements in FY2021, and an unwavering focus on our key verticals across our chosen geographies ANZ, UK and US, plus the strong progress in growth and merchant acquisition in B2B, Openpay is well set up to scale our business and create the unit economics which provide clear pathway to profitability in the mid-term.

As the market increasingly values not only top-line and customer growth, but also healthy margins and defendable competitive positions based on integration partnerships as 'moats' and to scale, Management will continue to be razor-sharp in executing our growth strategy in our verticals, targeting finance savvy customers, and successfully launching and growing innovative new products such as OpyPro in B2B.

FY22 will be the year when Openpay will record initial substantial volume growth in the largest global consumer market, the US, where all high-growth competitors have built a presence, creating a fundamental quantum leap in growth and scale.

Online investor briefing

Investors are invited to attend an online group briefing today at 2:30pm AEST, where Group CEO & Managing Director, Michael Eidel and Group CFO, Jussi Nunes will discuss Openpay's Q4 FY21 results. Please register via the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XLYs0jJPT_Ka4zrGjR6OsQ^[5]

Authorised by: The Board of DirectorsOpenpay Group Ltd

About Openpay

Openpay Group Ltd (ASX: OPY) is a fast-growing and highly differentiated player in the global 'Buy now pay later' (BNPL) payment solutions market. Openpay's strong platform enables it to deliver the most flexible plans in the market with durations of 2–24 months and values of up to $20,000.

Openpay focuses on industries where it can make a true difference: Automotive, Healthcare, Home Improvement, Memberships and Education; and its target customers are finance-savvy and of an older demographic who use Openpay plans as a cashflow management tool.

Openpay also has a unique B2B offering, OpyPro, a SaaS-based platform that allows companies to manage trade accounts end-to-end, including applications, credit checks, approvals and account management in the one system.

Openpay provides services to Customers and Merchants in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and entered the US market, under the brand name Opy, in December 2020.

See more at www.openpay.com.au^[6].

Annexure

In accordance with ASX Listing Rule 4.7C Openpay provides the following information:

The quarter ended 30 June 2021 is covered by the "Use of Funds Statement" as in the Openpay Prospectus dated 22 November 2019. As Openpay listed on the ASX as of 16 December 2019 with an existing cash balance the company has reflected the cashflows since 1 January 2020 to satisfy the ASX Listing Rule 4.7C except for the costs of the initial public offering transactions which has been captured from the date of listing.

A summary of the expenditure from 1 January 2020 to 30 June 2021 is outlined below:

Payments to Directors and related parties during Q4 FY21 totaled $267,000.

Authorised by: The Board of DirectorsOpenpay Group Ltd

Compliance statement

1. This statement has been prepared in accordance with accounting standards and policies which comply with Listing Rule 19.11A.
2. This statement gives a true and fair view of the matters disclosed.

Date:                28 JULY 2021

Authorised by: Board of Directors.

(Name of body or officer authorising release – see note 4)

Notes

1. This quarterly cash flow report and the accompanying activity report provide a basis for informing the market about the entity's activities for the past quarter, how they have been financed and the effect this has had on its cash position. An entity that wishes to disclose additional information over and above the minimum required under the Listing Rules is encouraged to do so.
2. If this quarterly cash flow report has been prepared in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards, the definitions in, and provisions of, AASB 107: Statement of Cash Flows apply to this report. If this quarterly cash flow report has been prepared in accordance with other accounting standards agreed by ASX pursuant to Listing Rule 19.11A, the corresponding equivalent standard applies to this report.
3. Dividends received may be classified either as cash flows from operating activities or cash flows from investing activities, depending on the accounting policy of the entity.
4. If this report has been authorised for release to the market by your board of directors, you can insert here: "By the board". If it has been authorised for release to the market by a committee of your board of directors, you can insert here: "By the [name of board committee – eg Audit and Risk Committee]". If it has been authorised for release to the market by a disclosure committee, you can insert here: "By the Disclosure Committee".
5. If this report has been authorised for release to the market by your board of directors and you wish to hold yourself out as complying with recommendation 4.2 of the ASX Corporate Governance Council's Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations, the board should have received a declaration from its CEO and CFO that, in their opinion, the financial records of the entity have been properly maintained, that this report complies with the appropriate accounting standards and gives a true and fair view of the cash flows of the entity, and that their opinion has been formed on the basis of a sound system of risk management and internal control which is operating effectively.

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3. ^{^} https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1582834/3.jpg?p=publish (mma.prnewswire.com)
4. ^{^} https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1582874/4.jpg?p=publish (mma.prnewswire.com)
5. ^{^} https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XLYs0jJPT_Ka4zrGjR6OsQ (us02web.zoom.us)
6. ^{^} www.openpay.com.au (www.openpay.com.au)
7. ^{^} https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/openpay-group-ltd-quarterly-update-and-appendix-4c-301343266.html (www.prnewswire.com)