A Chinese regulator’s inquiry led OPay to halt its $304M New York listing hours after pricing it, Bloomberg reported. The Nigeria-focused payments company has no operations or revenue in China, according to the report.
Loni Prinsloo and Julia Fioretti reported for Bloomberg that OPay’s only link to China is its founder, Chinese businessman Zhou Yahui. They cited people familiar with the matter. Talks are ongoing, the people said, and no one knows yet if the two sides can settle it. OPay declined to comment to Bloomberg, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission did not respond.
Zhou also founded Kunlun Tech, which once owned the dating app Grindr. In 2016 he led a group that bought part of Norway’s Opera.
A listing that never traded
OPay filed for listing in New York in October. It sold 16 million American depositary shares at $19 each, the bottom of its $19 to $21 range, Semafor reported. The shares never started trading.
OPay put out a statement on 31 October. It did not name the country behind the inquiry.
The inquiry relates to “a jurisdiction that is immaterial to the Company’s core business operations,” OPay said.
The company said it was confident the inquiry would end well soon. OPay and its banks agreed to end their underwriting deal of 29 October. It said it would share updates as they come.
People close to the deal told Semafor’s Yinka Adegoke that the move shocked bankers and advisers.
“A disaster for everyone,” one of them told Semafor.
According to Semafor, OPay’s prospectus warned investors it was unclear if it needed Beijing’s approval to list in the US. Citing its Chinese lawyers, the company said it did not believe it needed the regulator’s approval.
A bank that dropped off
OPay’s prospectus listed China International Capital Corp among its underwriters, alongside Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Standard Bank. Bloomberg reported that CICC later came off the deal.
OPay has its headquarters in Singapore but makes most of its money in Nigeria. The country brought in 89.5% of its revenue in the first half of 2026, its prospectus shows. OPay had 50.1 million monthly users at the end of July. It also serves Egypt, Indonesia and Pakistan.
Bloomberg said a valuation of about $4bn is at stake. It tied the case to Beijing’s moves against firms outside China. One was forcing Meta to undo its $2bn purchase of Manus. Beijing blocked that deal, and Manus has since raised more than $500M on its own.