“Our microlending apps are and have been fully compliant with the policies for the Google Play store and partner networks we rely on,” said Opera’s communications manager Alejandro Viquez. The company offers its loans through the OKash and OPesa apps in Kenya, and via OPay in Nigeria.
A report from Hindenburg on January 16 argues that Opera has disregarded a Google rule which states that apps which offer short-term personal loans of 60 days or less are not allowed. Hindenburg says that Opera failed to disclose the change in Google’s rules to investors when it raised $82m in a secondary offering in September.
- “We believe our disclosures were in compliance with US securities law,” Viquez says.
Hindenburg has taken a short position in Opera shares and so hopes to profit from a decline in their price.
- Short sellers argue that their activity serves a wider purpose in alerting markets to
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