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Goldman Sachs Nabs 'Buy Now, Pay Later' Lender GreenSky For $2.2 Billion
By: TheStreet | September 15, 2021

• Goldman expanded its retail lending footprint Wednesday with the $2.2 billion purchase of 'buy now, pay later' platform GreenSky.

GreenSky (GSKY) shares soared higher Wednesday following a move by Goldman Sachs GS to buy the online 'buy now, pay later' lending platform for around $2.2 billion.

GreenSky, which went public in a 2018 IPO that raised $874 million for the Atlanta-based group, offers "simple and transparent home improvement financing solutions for approximately four million customers", according to Goldman, which was on of the underwriters of the original listing. GreenSky will be aligned with Goldman's online banking platform known as 'Marcus', the companies said.

Goldman will pay $12.11 a share for GreenSky, a price that values the lender at $2.24 billion. The deal is expected to close before the end of the year.

“We have been clear in our aspiration for Marcus to become the consumer banking platform of the future, and the acquisition of GreenSky advances this goal,” said Goldman CEO David Solomon. “GreenSky and its talented team have built an impressive, cloud-native platform that will allow Marcus to reach a new and active set of merchants and customers and provide them with an expanding set of solutions.”

GreenSky shares were marked 50% higher in pre-market trading Wednesday to indicate an opening bell price of $11.65 each. Goldman shares were seen 0.84% lower at $400.21 each following news of the deal.

So-called 'buy now, pay later' lending platforms have been in focus of late following Square's (SQ) decision to buy Australia's Afterpay for around $29 billion.

Shortly after, PayPal Holdings (PYPL) expanded its footprint in the 'buy now, pay later' sector with the $2.7 billion purchase of Japan-based Paidy.

Paidy, which counts Visa Inc. (V) and Soros Capital Management among it financial backers, has around 6 million registered users in the world's third largest economy.

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