Peppermint Innovation Ltd (ASX: PIL) shares are up an eye-catching 227% today. The Peppermint share price opened at 3.3 cents this morning and is currently trading at 3.6 cents. Earlier in the day, Peppermint shares were as high as 4.3 cents, which represented a 291% gain.
Now although this looks like a stunningly good move today that you might think has made several millionaires, the story is a little more nuanced than it first appears. Firstly, it's important to note that today is the first day in quite a while that this company's shares have been actually available for trading. The stock has been in a hiatus for a long time, around 1½ years to be precise.
Peppermint shares were last traded on the ASX back in October 2019. Since then, they have been in the deep freeze. Prior to its trading halt, the company had a rather painful history. The Peppermint share price had its zenith way back in October 2009 when it reached a high of 37 cents, but has been in a downward spiral ever since.
In fact, between October 2009 and October 2019, Peppermint shares lost 97.3% of their value. Even after today's moves, that loss is still sitting at around 90%.
The company's shares closed at 1.1 cents a share back in 2019 and are now at 3.6 cents after the resumption of trading. That's why we are seeing this seemingly-massive jump today.
What is Peppermint Innovation?
Peppermint Innovation operates a mobile banking platform that facilitates payments and remittance. It can be used by other clients to offer services in this ilk. Currently, apps that run through Peppermint's platform include Bizmoto, UCBP and Bank of Mataki. These apps are mostly based in the Philippines.
According to the company, Peppermint was suspended from the ASX in 2019 "due to a disclaimer of opinion in Peppermint's annual financial report for the financial year ended 30 June 2019". However, in a letter to the ASX seeking reinstatement, Peppermint's chair Anthony Kain claimed that "Peppermint has continued to build its platform and business" regardless.
The company has since performed a capital raise of $2 million and delivered a quarterly update for the quarter ending 31 December 2020. In that update, Peppermint reported cash receipts of $540,000 for the quarter and $2.9 million for the 2020 calendar year. That was up from $1.65 million for 2019.
In the same update, Peppermint's CEO Chris Kain stated the following:
I am very excited for what the next 12 months holds for Peppermint Innovation… We saw our business expand significantly, achieving a 76% increase in overall cash receipts in CY '20 on CY '19… The next 12 months will be extremely exciting for Peppermint as we continue to evolve the bizmoto platform and seek further opportunities for our established and proven mobile banking platform.
Judging by the rather successful Peppermint share price performance today, it seems investors agree.
