Fatfish Group (ASX:FFG) - Director & CEO, Kin W Lau
Director & CEO, Kin W Lau
Source: The New Savvy
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  • Tech venture firm Fatfish (FFG) reports an $8.5 million loss for 2021, a 547 per cent increase on the prior year
  • The company attributes the loss to a one-off share based incentive payment of $6.7 million to key executives as well as investing in its Southeast Asian fintech business
  • This involved acquiring a majority stake in a Malaysian company and increasing its stake in a Singapore-based buy now, pay later (BNPL) company
  • Fatfish also launched its own retail BNPL business, which saw 87 merchants sign within the first two weeks
  • FFG shares are up 4 per cent to trade at 5.2 cents

Fatfish (FFG) has reported an $8.5 million loss for 2021 which is a 547 per cent increase from its $200,401 loss in 2020.

The tech venture firm said the higher loss is predominantly due to a one-off share based incentive of $6.7 million to company executives, which was approved by shareholders in March last year.

If you exclude the one-off share based payment, the company’s loss was approximately $1.5 million for the 12 months ending December 31, 2021.

Total and net assets increased 50 and 13.4 per cent to $28.7 million and $20.5 million respectively as a result of Fatfish investing its resources into the expansion of its Southeast Asian fintech business.

As part of this expansion strategy, Fatfish acquired a 55 per cent stake in Malaysian company Pay Direct Technology. Pay Direct is a payment gateway company operating under the brand “Betterpay”.

Fatfish also increased its interest in Singapore-based buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Smartfunding to 89.4 per cent.

To fund its fintech expansion plans in Southeast Asia, Fatfish entered a long-term agreement with US-based fund Arena Investors who contributed $8 million to the Fatfish business.

Significantly, the company launched a retail BNPL business under the “PaySlowSlow” brand, which saw 87 merchants sign within the first two weeks.

Fatfish ended the period with $4.1 million in cash and believes it’s well positioned for growth in 2022.

FFG shares were up 4 per cent to trade at 5.2 cents at 1:55 pm AEDT.

FFG by the numbers
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