Mint Payments has applied for removal from the official list of the Australian Securities Exchange, citing limited trading volume and low liquidity in the stock, and warning that the current spread of shareholders and their aggregate holdings may not be sufficient to maintain an orderly and liquid market.

Mint said it could reduce costs and have greater strategic flexibility as an unlisted company. It has a market capitalisation of just A$18 million.

The company announced yesterday that it has received ASX approval, subject to shareholder approval. A shareholder meeting has been called for August 21.

Mint said major shareholders were supporting the move. The share register is highly concentrated, with around 71 per cent of the issued capital held by the top 20 shareholders. In addition, there are a large number of unmarketable parcels.

“Retail investor interest in the company is low and has remained so, despite continued efforts by the company to attract and retain investors,” the company said in a statement.

It will undertake a buyback of unmarketable parcels to enable small shareholders to exit the register.

The company was listed in 2007, hoping to carve out a niche in the payments market with what it described as “innovative payments technology and transaction processing platform”. In recent years its focus has been on the travel sector.

It has been a consistent loss maker and its revenue has remained fairly flat over the past few years. Over the past 10 years, it has not once been able to generate positive cash flow from operating activities.

More recently, with its focus on travel the company has suffered a “material decline” in transaction volumes due to the impact of COVID-19.

In its announcement yesterday, the company said: “It is the board’s view that the price at which Mint shares have traded on the ASX over an extended period of time does not appropriately reflect the underlying value of the business.”