Good evening,

Who said reporting season had been a bit boring? Certainly not Afterpay. The turbocharged Aussie BNPL was back at it again on Thursday, outfooting just about everyone else in capital markets and cashing in on huge hype around the business.

Afterpay raised $1.5 billion in an upsized convertible notes deal that effectively gives it $1.5 billion interest free for the next five years. If things go well, Afterpay will repay the loan with shares at $190 a share. If not, it will give the $1.5 billion back, and not pay any interest.

From what we hear, the deal could’ve been sold a few times over on Thursday, such is the heat in capital markets and hype around the Aussie BNPL player. It is astounding.

Oh, and of course, the capital markets deal was accompanied by a co-founder selldown, with both Anthony Eisen and Nick Molnar establishing charities.

The other interesting tidbit out of the raising was seeing JPMorgan pop up in the Afterpay camp. It’s clearly making a franchise move to support Afterpay, and you can bet it will be putting some of its balance sheet behind the company.

In tomorrow’s column, we have news about a $1.2 billion a year freight tie-up, and take a look at Anchorage Capital’s plans for childcare group Affinity Education.

And we also take a look at one of the big fish circling Bondi Sands.

Happy reading,
Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald and Tim Boyd
Street Talk Editors