Shares of Nuvei Corp. slipped after short seller Spruce Point Capital Management published a negative report, on the heels of Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds’ announcement that he’s an investor in the Canadian payments firm.
(Bloomberg) — Shares of Nuvei Corp. slipped after short seller Spruce Point Capital Management published a negative report, on the heels of Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds’ announcement that he’s an investor in the Canadian payments firm.
Nuvei tumbled about 6% early Tuesday but pared losses to trade down 2% at $41.60 as of 2:26 p.m. New York time.
It’s the second time in two years that Spruce Point has gone after the Montreal-based company, which offers payment services for a number of sectors including the gaming and crypto industries.
Spruce Point said it’s short the stock, citing the potential for a 35% to 50% drop in value. Its report questioned Nuvei’s financial transparency, its links with failed crypto platform FTX and its recent $1.3 billion acquisition of Atlanta-based Paya Holdings Inc. Spruce Point said its analysis shows Paya was losing market share and revenue growth was slowing.
“We believe Nuvei’s underlying business is under pressure for a number of reasons,” Ben Axler, Spruce Point’s founder and chief investment officer, said on BNN Bloomberg Television.
Reynolds said Monday he’s taking taking a stake in Nuvei, alongside a marketing pitch he did for the company in several online videos.
“Fintech is another zag, really. I like unusual moves,” Reynolds said of his investment during an interview on Bloomberg Television on Tuesday. “It’s a sector that a lot of people have run away from. But payments are pretty ubiquitous, payments are pretty critical, and that’s something I like about that.”
Read more: T-Mobile Buys Ryan Reynolds’s Mint Mobile for $1.35 Billion
No financial terms were disclosed. Spruce Point’s Axler asked whether any money exchanged hands or if Reynolds was instead given restricted stock in return for his work. On Bloomberg Television, Nuvei Chief Executive Officer Philip Fayer declined to give any details of the arrangement with Reynolds. But he said the actor can “change the narrative on something that is actually quite technical and boring, and make it fun and humorous.”
Keefe Bruyette & Woods analyst Sanjay Sakhrani said the Spruce Point report did not carry much weight.
“Like its last report, we believe the short seller is grasping for irregularities without citing material and provable issues,” Sakhrani said in a note to investors. “While we respect the investor’s investigative approach, it’s hard for us to connect all the dots and get on board that anything is actually wrong with the company.“
(Updates with comments from Bloomberg Television interview)
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