(Bloomberg) -- Shares of Canadian payment company Lightspeed Commerce Inc. rose as much as 13% Thursday after it reported a better outlook amid a strategic review that could lead to a sale.
“Since I came back to Lightspeed, we’ve been just looking at operations, simplifying operations across the business, looking for efficiencies,” said the founder and Chief Executive Officer Dax Dasilva in an interview.
Dasilva was reappointed as CEO in February, replacing JP Chauvet and promising to prioritize profitability. He later said that going private, as fellow Quebec technology firm Nuvei Corp. announced it would, could be an option.
In September, the Montreal-based maker of point-of-sale software for retailers and restaurants confirmed it was conducting a strategic review of its operations. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Royal Bank of Canada were hired to help with the process, according to a person familiar with the matter.
“I just want to make sure that everybody’s super clear that we don’t have a presupposed outcome for that,” Dasilva said. “All options are very much on the table, and that ranges from remaining a standalone public company to the alternatives that we’re exploring as a part of the review process.”
Lightspeed reported revenues of $277 million in its second fiscal quarter, ended Sept. 30, slightly beating estimates. Revenues rose above $1 billion on a 12-month trailing basis for the first time in the firm’s almost 20-year history.
The company raised its outlook for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in fiscal year 2025 to $50 million from $45 million, but is not yet profitable. Lightspeed said it will postpone an investor day conference scheduled this month due to the strategic review.
Lightspeed went public in 2019 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Its stock price reached an all-time high of almost C$160 in September 2021, but never recovered from the tech market slump. Shares rose 6.8% to C$23.42 at 2:28 p.m. in Toronto, giving the company a C$3.56 billion ($2.57 billion) market capitalization.
Dasilva said the strategic review was triggered by “acting in the best interests of the company and its stakeholders.”
“We continue to believe that the stock could be worth considerably more on a takeout,” Bank of Montreal analyst Thanos Moschopoulos wrote in a note to clients.
Meanwhile, Lightspeed wants to focus its marketing strategy and grow outbound sales in its North American retail and European hospitality businesses.
“We can continue to get more efficiency as we reallocate resources,” Dasilva said. “We’re also looking at contracts, facilities, et cetera.”
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