Wise plans IPO on London Stock Exchange
LONDON, UK: Wise, the global technology company, is considering applying for admission by way of a direct listing of the shares to the standard listing segment of the Official List of the FCA and to trading on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.
Kristo Käärmann, CEO and co-founder of Wise, said: “Wise is used to challenging convention, and this listing is no exception. We’re ten years into building a new way to move money around the world – faster, cheaper, easier and completely transparent. A direct listing allows us a cheaper and more transparent way to broaden Wise’s ownership, aligned with our mission.
“We’re fixing a huge, structural problem on a global scale, and one which requires enormous discipline to solve. Operating sustainably, with a profit margin, helps us track our journey to lower prices for customers as we scale and remove costs. By bringing transparency and fairness into how we price our products, we’ve found a common ground of creating massive value for our customers, and also for our shareholders.
“Bringing in the people we serve as owners of Wise is something I’ve long wanted to do. Recently, we welcomed our first customer owners by gifting shares to a group of 1,800 active customers. Because of the long-term nature of our mission, we’ve always chosen shareholders with an understanding of, and passion for, the problem we’re solving.
“A direct listing, combined with a widely available dual class share structure, allows us to bring customers and other like-minded investors into our shareholder base, whilst keeping the focus on our deeply ingrained mission as we grow at speed.
“97.5% of peoples international payments are still flowing through banks and other providers, where fees are nearly always hidden. The experience is slow, broken and it’s just as bad for businesses. There’s a lot of work ahead – this mission will take us years, probably decades. I welcome more people and institutions joining us as owners of Wise, to build a new, better way for money to move without borders.”
In FY2021, Wise moved £54.4 billion across borders, for 6 million customers active in the financial year, representing a volume CAGR of 42% between FY2019 and FY2021. Revenues increased by a CAGR of 54% over the same period, reaching £421 million in FY2021.
The company saw strong growth not just at a group level but also across all geographies it operates in and with both personal and business customers. Gross margins were stable at approximately 62% throughout this period.
In FY2021, Adjusted EBITDA reached £109 million, a margin of 25.8%, while cash conversion[8] was 95.6%. Profit before tax for the year more than doubled to £41 million compared to the prior year.
Wise has seen strong demand at the start of FY2022 in terms of personal and business volumes and revenues. The company plans to publish a trading update for the first quarter of FY2022 in July 2021.
Looking ahead, while the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will remain difficult to predict, Wise expects revenue to grow in the medium-term at a CAGR of over 20% and Adjusted EBITDA margin to remain above 20%. For FY2022, Wise expects revenue growth in the low to mid-twenties on a percentage basis.
Wise has engaged Goldman Sachs International, Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc and Barclays Bank PLC as Lead Financial Advisers, and Citigroup Global Markets Limited as co-adviser in the event the direct listing proceeds.
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