UK fintech Wise set to list in London on July 7
2:40 am Thursday, June 24th, 2021
LONDON (Reuters) – British financial technology company Wise confirmed on Thursday that it plans to list in early July, in a test for London’s main market as investor appetite for company floats starts to wane.
The company, formerly known as TransferWise, plans to do a direct listing on the London Stock Exchange rather than sell shares at a set price in advance, with the opening price to be determined in an open auction on the date of admission to the exchange.
Bookrunners said trading was expected to start on July 7 after a management roadshow that begins on July 1.
The London-based payments app, founded in 2010 by two Estonian entrepreneurs, has not given an estimate for how much it expects to be valued at. Sources told Reuters in April it could be worth between $6 billion and $7 billion, making it potentially one of the biggest floats this year.
Kristo Käärmann, CEO and co-founder of Wise, said: “This process will broaden the ownership of Wise, in support of our mission to move money around the world faster, cheaper and more conveniently.
“Since announcing our expected intention to float last week, we’ve had over 60,000 expressions of interest in our customer shareholder programme.”
Some technology firms have had a rough ride so far on their London market debuts this year, with Deliveroo and Alphawave both diving on their debuts and still trading well below their listing prices.
Companies in other sectors have been wary of chancing the market, with Russian gold miner Nordgold pulling its planned IPO on Tuesday blaming volatility.
(Reporting by Iain Withers; Editing by Rachel Armstrong)
