A prominent short-seller is taking aim at Canadian fintech company Nuvei Corp. for a second time.

Spruce Point Capital Management said on Tuesday that it had a short position in Montreal-based Nuvei following the release of a report that raised concerns about transparency regarding the company’s recent acquisitions and its business ties.

In an interview with BNN Bloomberg on Tuesday, Spruce Point founder and chief investment officer Ben Axler said he is shorting the stock because of “issues we have not just with the management, the people behind it (Nuvei), but the underlying business, which appears to be getting worse and worse.”

“They need more transparency, more disclosure, and everything we see out of them gets more and more opaque,” he told BNN Bloomberg.

Axler declined to comment on the specific short position that Spruce Point held in Nuvei.

Axler said he has concerns about the unclear extent of Nuvei’s involvement with disgraced crypto exchange FTX, with which it had a past partnership following its acquisition of fintech startup Simplex in Sept. 2021 for US$290 million. Axler citied Spruce Point’s research - which found Nuvei was listed as a creditor in FTX’s bankruptcy filings - and pointing out that the company could potentially have legal exposure and a significant impairment tied to its involvement with FTX.

He also took issue with Nuvei’s acquisition of fintech Paya Holdings Inc. for US$1.3 billion in February, noting that its value is unclear given its questionable growth projections.

Nuvei’s stock fell as much as 8.3 per cent on the Toronto Stock Exchange after Spruce Point’s report was published on Tuesday morning, but it was trading in positive territory again shortly after 11 a.m.

BNN Bloomberg has not independently verified Spruce Point’s claims. Nuvei has dismissed past concerns raised by Spruce Point in its 2021 report on Nuvei, which raised similar concerns.

In an interview with BNN Bloomberg on Tuesday, Nuvei CEO Philip Fayer responded to the report by saying he is focused on the future of his company.

“You have promoters and detractors and we respect both of their positions,” Fayer said in a television interview. “We’re really excited not of where the business is right now, but what we can do with the business again over the next five years.”

Fayer’s comments came a day after Nuvei announced a creative partnership with Canadian actor and entrepreneur Ryan Reynolds, who also invested an undisclosed amount into the company.

Axler said he doesn’t take issue with Reynolds’ creative role, but he wants to see more specifics about the actor’s financial involvement with Nuvei.

“He’s (Reynolds) there to tell the story, and he's telling the story,” Axler said. “But our real question is: did he put his own money into the company? Or was he gifted that through an equity issuance of restricted stock?”

In a statement to BNN Bloomberg Monday, Nuvei said Reynolds does not publically disclose the details of his investments.

Fayer repeated on Tuesday that the company isn’t disclosing the terms of the partnership with Reynolds, but he said Nuvei is “excited” about the venture and that Reynolds will be involved with creative elements and helping build stronger brand awareness.

Reynolds said he’s excited to promote the Canadian fintech company, and said the partnership will structured similar to his other business ventures.

“If Nuvei wins, I win, and vice versa,” he said in a television interview. “I really genuinely believe (that) having skin in the game is very important.”