Current price - $0.44 (mcap: $100m)
P/E 13.5 (TTM)
Earlypay is debtor/equipment finance provider in Oz. Up until covid, business had been growing nicely year on year with stable mgmt team. In Feb20 the business received two takeover bids, one of which was from COG (asx listed) for $0.60. The bids were pulled as covid took hold but COG remains material shareholder in EPY (owns 16%) and openly stated in its own 1H20 results that “we continue to monitor EPY’s performance in FY21 in light of covid disruptions”. Covid disruptions to EPY refer to all the government assistance helping companies who then do not need credit. 1H21 results showed the run rate in late 1H21 was good and guidance is: ‘record H2 expected’.
In Aug20 EPY also acquired a tech platform (Skippr) which is an automated customer acquisition channel. Basically online/fintech setup which removes manual applications etc. already in H121 EBITDA margins were up and this should continue to expand the more this is exploited.