September was a rough month for the ASX cohort of high-growth BNPL stocks.

But this week’s price actions suggests any reports of the pending demise of the BNPL narrative appear, for now, to have been exaggerated.

BNPL ASX — the latest moves

On Tuesday, Stockhead caught up with pro tech investor Dean Fergie after the BNPL sector got pantsed again.

Fergie’s fund, Cyan Investment Management, was an early investor in Afterpay (ASX:APT) but after a huge re-rating for the sector, he said the outlook is more complex in an environment of tightening monetary policy.

Global bond yields are still edging higher, but this week marked a subtle shift — the Nasdaq started to digest it, and the world’s biggest tech leaders kept climbing.

Three days is a long time in BNPL, and that Tuesday sell-off turned out to be the latest floor.

Since then, Afterpay has climbed back above $120 after falling to post-Square Inc acquisition lows.

The other two largest companies by market cap — Zip Co (ASX:Z1P) and Sezzle (ASX:SZL) — have also found demand although both companies are trading about 50% shy of the heights they reached at the peak of the BNPL boom in February.

And a nanocap market update this morning showed that the BNPL narrative can still hold sway with investors.

Sub-$10m market cap company Rewardle (ASX:RXP), a digital marketing platform, announced an equity payments deal with SplitPay, which offers BNPL services in the US and Europe.

Instead of cash payments, RXP said it would take a small ownership stake (<1%) in SplitPay. Shares in the company approximately doubled in Friday trade.

There was also some BNPL news flow at the big end of town, where ANZ Bank announced plans to get into the BNPL game.

The bank said it will team up with Visa to offer the Visa Instalments BNPL solution in Australia for ANZ cardholders.

ANZ isn’t the only banking major to offer BNPL services, although as Stockhead’s Nick Sundich pointed out, as recently as March this year ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott said he didn’t see the rise of BNPL as a threat to credit cards.

Looking ahead, the US remains the central focus for ASX BNPL plays looking to level up.

Afterpay looks to have made it, with the biggest M&A deal in ASX history. US-based Sezzle is pursuing a US listing, while Zip Co has exposure to the US market through its US subsidiary Zip Co.

And yesterday, competitor OpenPay (ASX:OPY) flagged a US$271.4 warehouse financing facility that includes backing from Goldman Sachs, to fund its growth in the US market.

Here’s how ASX BNPL (and BNPL-adjacent) stocks have performed today and over the past week:

CODE COMPANY PRICE % RETURN - FRIDAY 1 WEEK RETURN % MARKET CAP
OPY Openpay Group 1.455 2.5% 9.4% 150,419,254
NOV Novatti Group Ltd 0.46 3.4% 4.5% 144,380,624
SZL Sezzle Inc. 5.85 3.5% 2.1% 1,118,450,937
HUM Humm Group Limited 0.865 0.6% 1.8% 425,930,753
LFS Latitude Group 2.195 1.2% 1.6% 2,170,000,000
PYR Payright Limited 0.35 0.0% 1.4% 24,062,563
APT Afterpay Limited 122.8 1.8% 1.2% 34,993,188,055
CI1 Credit Intelligence 0.015 0.0% 0.0% 24,040,853
Z1P Zip Co Ltd. 6.97 1.8% -1.3% 3,867,790,480
FFG Fatfish Group 0.053 0.0% -1.9% 54,914,883
DOU Douugh Limited 0.068 6.3% -2.9% 28,886,092
SPT Splitit 0.4 2.6% -5.9% 181,865,102
ZBT Zebit Inc. 0.65 -1.5% -7.1% 62,441,745
IOU Ioupay Limited 0.255 2.0% -7.3% 137,853,016
LBY Laybuy Group Holding 0.47 0.0% -9.6% 119,597,234
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