EPE ha$ options for fa$t-growing Optasia
The AI-driven fintech company is a swing factor in EPE's valuation, and it's exploring various exit alternatives, including an IPO
EPE Capital Partners is a small-cap investment holding company trading at a discount of just under 20% to its stated NAV. The group's 7.3% stake in Optasia -- an AI-driven fintech that sells its services to mobile networks and banks, which then offer them to their own customers (in other words, a business-to-business-to-consumer model) -- makes up roughly half of that NAV. That concentration makes Optasia the swing factor in EPE's valuation, and a recent investor day presentation by Optasia founder Bassim Haidar put granular colour to the growth story.
It also puts the EPE board's stated strategy in sharper relief: create value, realise assets, reduce leverage and return capital swiftly and efficiently -- now explicitly including "various exit alternatives, including a potential IPO" for Optasia...