Briefs: Openpay gets funding, ABGF makes first investment, new ANZ head of international 08 October 2021 6:22AM Banking Day staff Briefs, Payments, mobile & wallets, Car loans & HP, Debt capital markets, ANZ, Appointments Simon Ireland, ANZ's new MD international Buy now pay later provider Openpay has established a US$271.4 million warehouse facility, which will be used to fund receivables in the US. Goldman Sachs is the senior funder and Atalaya Capital Management is providing the mezzanine finance. The lenders have committed US$135.7 million of the facility so far, with the balance to be committed at their discretion. The funding is a much-needed show of faith in the business, which reported heavy losses and a bad debt blowout for the year to June. Its auditor said it faced “material uncertainty” as a going concern. The Australian Business Growth Fund has made its first investment – a A$15 million investment in 3ME Technology, a supplier of lithium ion battery systems to industry. The ABGF has not been in a hurry to deploy its funds. It was set up last year as a government and business partnership to provide equity funding for small and medium enterprises. The government invested $100 million and the major banks each committed $100 million. HSBC Bank Australia and Macquarie Group committed $20 million each. The Treasurer has said he hopes to grow the fund to $1 billion. ANZ has appointed Simon Ireland as managing director international. Ireland has been at ANZ since 2008 and he is currently global head of financial institutions group, based in Hong Kong. In his new role he will be responsible for ANZ’s institutional business in 19 markets. Prior to ANZ, he has worked at Lehman Brothers, Chase Manhattan, Citi, HSBC, RBS and Bank of America. He replaces Farhan Faruqui, who was appointed group CFO in August.
