Chinese billionaire Yahui Zhou's OPay halted its $304 million IPO over Beijing inquiry

Inquiries from China's securities regulator led OPay Ltd., the Nigerian payments company founded by Chinese billionaire Yahui Zhou, to halt its $304 million initial public offering in New York just hours after pricing the shares, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

OPay has no operations in China and earns no revenue there, and its only link to the country is Zhou, the people told Bloomberg. Talks between OPay and the China Securities Regulatory Commission are continuing, and it is unclear whether the matter can be resolved, they said.

A representative for OPay declined to comment to Bloomberg, and the regulator did not respond to its request for comment.

The company called off the listing on Oct. 31, a day after its executives rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. It said at the time that the decision followed an inquiry in a foreign jurisdiction, which it did not name, and that the inquiry should not be seen as a reflection on its business performance, financial condition or regulatory standing.

A $4 billion valuation on hold

OPay had priced 16 million American depositary shares at $19 each, the bottom of its marketed range, valuing the company at about $4 billion. That was twice the $2 billion valuation it reached when it raised $400 million in 2021. The shares were due to start trading on Oct. 30 under the symbol OPAY but never opened, and the exchange halted the stock that afternoon with news pending.

Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG and Standard Bank Group Ltd. are working on the listing. China International Capital Corp., one of the original banks on the deal, has been taken off it. The collapse also put on hold a planned investment of up to $200 million from Standard Bank's Stanbic Africa Holdings, which was tied to the closing of the IPO.

The listing had been expected to lift Africa's venture-backed technology sector, which has struggled to raise money since private capital markets slowed after the pandemic. PalmPay Ltd., another Africa-focused fintech with Chinese shareholders and a partner of smartphone maker Shenzhen Transsion Holdings Co., is preparing an IPO in Hong Kong, and has been in talks to raise about $200 million before the listing, Bloomberg reported in August.

The inquiry adds to a run of moves by Beijing against deals outside its borders. Earlier this year, China forced Meta Platforms Inc. to unwind its $2 billion purchase of artificial intelligence startup Manus, and on Thursday reports said China had blocked SoftBank Group Corp.'s $5.4 billion acquisition of ABB Ltd.'s robotics business. SoftBank entities own 6.6% of OPay.

Zhou's empire

OPay, founded in 2018, is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and based in Singapore, but Nigeria accounts for almost 90% of its revenue. The app offers payments, transfers, savings and loans to about 50 million monthly users, and also operates in Egypt, Indonesia and Pakistan. Revenue more than doubled to $467.1 million in the first half of 2026, and net income rose to $90.9 million.

Zhou, 49, made his fortune with Beijing Kunlun Tech Co., the online gaming company he founded in 2008, which once owned the dating app Grindr. He led a group that bought part of Opera Ltd., the Norwegian browser maker, in 2016, and is its chairman. OPay began as an offshoot of Opera's African business before becoming a separate company. Its filings do not disclose the size of Zhou's stake.