NEW YORK, March 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Opera Limited (“Opera” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ:  OPRA) and certain of its officers.   The class action, filed in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and indexed under 20-cv-00674, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired: (a) Opera American depositary shares (“ADSs”) pursuant and/or traceable to the Company’s initial public offering commenced on or about July 27, 2018 (the “IPO” or “Offering”); and/or (b) Opera securities between July 27, 2018 and January 15, 2020, both dates inclusive (the “Class Period”).  Plaintiff pursues claims against the Defendants under the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”) and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”).

If you are a shareholder who purchased Opera securities pursuant and/or traceable to the IPO and/or during the Class Period, you have until March 24, 2020, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class.  A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com.   To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased. 

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

Opera was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Oslo, Norway.  The Company, through its subsidiaries, provides mobile and Personal Computer web browser applications in Ireland, Russia, and internationally, under the Opera Mini, Opera for Android, Opera Touch, and Opera for Computers brand names.

Opera has also increasingly invested in its fintech businesses, providing mobile loan and financing applications marketed to Kenya, Nigeria, and India, under the OKash, OPesa, CashBean, and OPay brand names, which are offered on Google LLC’s (“Google”) Play Store marketplace, as downloadable applications.

On August 9, 2018, Opera completed its IPO, issuing 9,600,000 ADSs priced at $12.00 per share, raising approximately $115.2 million in proceeds before underwriting discounts and commissions, and other expenses.

The Complaint alleges that the offering documents were negligently prepared and, as a result, contained untrue statements of material fact or omitted to state other facts necessary to make the statements made not misleading and were not prepared in accordance with the rules and regulations governing their preparation.  Additionally, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company’s business, operational and compliance policies.  Specifically, the Offering Documents and Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Opera’s sustainable growth and market opportunity for its browser applications was significantly overstated; (ii) Defendants’ funded, owned, or otherwise controlled loan services applications and/or businesses relied on predatory lending practices; (iii) all the foregoing, once revealed, were reasonably likely to have a material negative impact on Opera’s financial prospects, especially with respect to its lending applications’ continued availability on the Google Play Store; and (iv) as a result, the Offering Documents and Defendants’ statements were materially false and/or misleading and failed to state information required to be stated therein.

On January 16, 2020, Hindenburg Research (“Hindenburg”) published a report asserting that Hindenburg had “a 12-month price target of $2.60 on Opera, representing a 70% downside.”  Among other issues, Hindenburg reported that Opera’s “browser market share is declining rapidly, down ~30% since its IPO”; that Opera was involved in “predatory short-term loans in Africa and India, deploying deceptive ‘bait and switch’ tactics to lure in borrowers and charging egregious interest rates ranging from ~365-876%”; that Opera’s lending business applications, many of which are offered on Google’s Play Store—particularly, OKash, OPesa, CashBean, and Opay—were “in black and white violation of numerous Google rules” aimed at “curtail[ing] predatory lending”; and that consequently, Opera’s entire lending business was “at risk of disappearing or being severely curtailed when Google notices” Opera’s alleged violation of its rules.

On this news, Opera’s ADS price fell $1.69 per share, or 18.74%, to close at $7.33 per share on January 16, 2020.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com

CONTACT:
Robert S. Willoughby
Pomerantz LLP
rswilloughby@pomlaw.com

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