Affirm Holdings prices US IPO above target range, raises $1.2B

Affirm Holdings Inc, a U.S. provider of installment loans to online shoppers, said on Wednesday it sold shares in its initial public offering (IPO) at $49 apiece, above its target range, to raise $1.2 billion.

Affirm said it offered 24.6 million shares of its Class A common stock, and that shares are due to begin trading on the Nasdaq later in the day under the symbol "AFRM".

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Affirm, founded by PayPal Holdings Inc co-founder Max Levchin, had planned to sell 24.6 million shares at a target price range of between $41 and $44 each. The company had upsized the share offering from a range of $33 to $38 per share on Monday.

The IPO, the largest U.S. listing so far in 2021, signals that investor appetite for new stocks remains robust following a stellar 2020, which was the strongest IPO market in two decades.

Levchin founded Affirm in 2012 to offer easily accessible financing targeted at mostly young online shoppers, who pay back in monthly installments. The company generated revenue of $174 million in three months ended September 2020, up 98% from the previous year. Its net losses narrowed to $15.3 million compared with $30.7 million. As of June 2020, Affirm had $1.1 billion in debt.

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Besides Levchin, Affirm's major investors include Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, venture capital firms Khosla Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Funds, and Canadian e-commerce firm Shopify Inc.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Allen & Co are the lead underwriters for Affirm's offering.

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(Reporting by Joshua Franklin in Miami and Chibuike Oguh in New York; Additional reporting by Maria Ponnezhath; Editing by Chris Reese, Christopher Cushing and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)