Shares in buy-now-pay-later fintech Afterpay (ASX:APT) are down more than 6% trade on Thursday after the company announced Chief Financial Offer (CFO) Luke Bortoli will step down after three years in the role.
Rebecca Lowde, Chief Executive of ASX-listed Salmat, and the former CFO of fintech Bravura Solution, will become CFO on October 6.
Afterpay shares slipped under $74 in afternoon trade following the announcement. The company said Bortoli will remain with the business to assist with the transition, particularly in the lead up to the company’s half year results, and officially depart at the end of FY21.
Afterpay CEO Anthony Eisen praised Bortoli’s “transformational contribution” in “highly crucial years” to the business.
“He has built a world class finance function that has grown from a small number of employees based in Australia to a high performing team operating across multiple regions and functions,” he said.
“Luke has worked tirelessly as a partner to the executive leadership team and been integral in driving our strong performance trajectory and expansion into new regions, while ensuring we had the right capital structure and investor base to achieve our strategic objectives.”
Bortoli, who was appointed CFO in May 2018, he was “particularly proud of the depth and diversity of the finance team I helped build with five of the eight finance team leaders being women.”
Afterpay’s share price has climbed more than 1,200% during Bortoli’s tenure, turning its founders into billionaires and pushing the company into the ASX200. $APT stock hit a fresh high of $95.97 last month.
In other executive appointments, Meahan Callaghan will take on the new role of Chief People Officer, with retail veteran Mark Teperson joining the business as Chief Strategy Officer.
Afterpay ended the day down 5.83% at $74.14 in a sea of red for the BNPL sector.
Sezzle fizzles
It wasn’t a good day for the BNPLs in general with Sezzle Inc. (ASX:SZL) falling 5.55% to $6.47 the day after announcing a new five-year partnership with Ally Lending that allows Sezzle to offer long-term installments to its merchant and consumer customers.
Splitit (ASX: SPT) was hardest hit, down 7.34% to $1.37, while OpenPay (ASX: OPY) fell 2.8% and Humm, aka Flexigroup, plunged 4.39%.
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