Briefly Israel's most valuable co, Pagaya plunges 97%

Pagaya bell ringing ceremony credit:  Ido Isaac PR
Pagaya bell ringing ceremony credit: Ido Isaac PR

In August, the Israeli fintech company was worth over $20 billion but as its share price dips below $1, it is in danger of being delisted.

Even with the sharp fall in tech share prices on Wall Street, It would be hard to find a company that has fallen further than Israeli fintech company Pagaya Technologies (Nasdaq: PGY). In early August, Pagaya's share price was over $30, giving a market cap of more than $20 billion, fleetingly making it, Israel's most valuable company, surpassing Check Point Software Technologies (Nasdaq: CHKP), SolarEdge Technologies (Nasdaq: SEDG) and NICE-Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE:NICE). Now the share price has dipped below $1, giving a market cap of $674.23 million and is in danger of being delisted if the situation does not improve.

In June Pagaya started trading on Nasdaq after completing its merger at a company valuation of $8.5 billion at a share price of $7. After briefly falling as expected, Pagaya's share price began to soar as it became the subject of a 'short squeeze.' Short traders who had bet against the share were forced to buy the share to cover their positions but other investors had deliberately bought up available shares, pushing up the price steeply in late July and early August as short traders sought scarce shares. Since then the share price has fallen 97%.

Pagaya was founded in 2016 by CEO Gal Krubiner, CRO Yahav Yulzari, and CTO Avital Pardo. Pagaya provides P2P credit and loans through a platform based on machine learning technology.

Krubiner recently told "Globes," "I don't think we were an Israeli GameStop. During that same period I was working like crazy, 24/7, on flights. So in terms of every day practicality, all that had no influence."

He says he didn't [plan to sell any shares. "Selling shares doesn't work like that and also there wasn't the desire to. We came to build something very sustainable here. It sharpens the investors' view of our business. People check how good our business is."

On both the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq, the share price must be higher than $1 over time, for the traded company to continue to meet the conditions of trading on Wall Street. After 30 days of a share price below $1, the company receives a warning letter from the management of the stock exchange, and must act to correct the situation, or it will be delisted.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 23, 2022.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2022. .

Pagaya bell ringing ceremony credit:  Ido Isaac PR
Pagaya bell ringing ceremony credit: Ido Isaac PR
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