Livewire Article – Afterpay Boom or Bust

28 Aug 2020

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If there was such a thing as a fairy tale in an investment context, the ASX’s tech darling Afterpay (ASX:APT) would no doubt be a worthy poster child. For investors who had participated in the 2016 IPO and held on, the stock would be a ~90 bagger by now.

Livewire readers nominated Afterpay as their second most popular choice among the 10-most tipped big caps for 2020. They picked it when the buy now-pay later leader was trading at a market cap of under $8 billion. That number now is already ~$26 billion (that’s half the size of ANZ Bank by the way).

But the company’s warp-speed journey to nearly $100 has set off an explosion of divisive debates among investors. Will Anthony Eisen and Nick Molnar’s flawless execution continue into new markets, or will a tide of bad debts, rising unemployment and new regulation break the back of Australia’s hottest stock?

In this wire, I reach out to long-time holder Simon Shields of Monash Investors for the bull thesis, and Dean Fergie of Cyan Investment Management, who sold out of the stock, for the bear case.\\

 

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