(Bloomberg) — Wise Plc is planning to list its shares in the US, the latest blow to London\u2019s stock market.<\/p>\n
Most Read from Bloomberg<\/p>\n
While the fintech will maintain a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange, the US will be its primary listing venue, Wise said in a statement Thursday. It\u2019s the latest sign that low valuations and weak liquidity in London\u2019s capital markets are pushing companies to list elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe the addition of a primary US listing would help us accelerate our mission and bring substantial strategic and capital market benefits to Wise and our owners,\u201d Kristo K\u00e4\u00e4rmann, Wise\u2019s co-founder and chief executive officer, said in a statement, which noted the US is \u201cthe biggest market opportunity in the world for our products.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wise shares jumped as much as 8.2% in early trading Thursday in London to their highest level since September 2021. Wise made its public debut in the UK in July 2021 and its stock has risen 33% since then – though it has spent most of its life as a public company trading below the original listing price.<\/p>\n
Wise said the move will allow institutional and retail investors in the US to buy up its shares and noted many of them are currently unable to do so. The move should increase liquidity in the firm\u2019s stock, allowing current shareholders \u201cgreater flexibility and opportunity to buy and hold our shares.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company is also hoping the US listing would give it a pathway to be included in major US indices, which should also boost liquidity and demand for its shares.<\/p>\n
Wise is joining the ranks of other companies that have shifted their listing to the US in recent years, including Flutter Entertainment Plc. and Europe\u2019s largest building materials company CRH Plc. Indivior Plc said this week it plans to cancel its secondary listing in London just a year after the drugmaker shifted its primary trading to the US.<\/p>\n
Wise\u2019s board has been discussing the optimal listing arrangements for the company in recent months after the UK\u2019s Financial Conduct Authority introduced new rules last year that caused the firm\u2019s shares to be transferred to the so-called Equity Shares (Transition) Category.<\/p>\n
Companies in this category are not able to be included in FTSE Russell indices. Inclusion in those indices can unlock billions of dollars of investment for companies because so many asset managers have funds that directly track the FTSE 100.<\/p>\n
Story Continues <\/p>\n
Wise would have needed its shares to be upgraded to the Equity Shares (Commercial Companies) Category in order for the company to be eligible for FTSE indices. For that, Wise would\u2019ve needed both FCA approval and it would need to amend certain parts of its articles of association.<\/p>\n
K\u00e4\u00e4rmann has faced criticism in the past because of how much control he exerts over Wise. The fintech has said its CEO holds around 50% of the voting rights in the company.<\/p>\n
Founded in 2011, Wise currently has a market value of around \u00a311 billion ($15 billion). The company has about 1,000 staff in London and its offices in Tallinn, Estonia have capacity for about 2,200 employees.<\/p>\n
–With assistance from Aisha S Gani and Emily Nicolle.<\/p>\n
(Corrects chart text regarding the nature of Wise\u2019s public debut.)<\/p>\n
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek<\/p>\n
\u00a92025 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Bloomberg) — Wise Plc is planning to list its shares in the US, the latest blow to London\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[3662,748,393,4884,257,3097,977,16,15,15332,67483],"class_list":{"0":"post-159779","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-bloomberg","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-london-stock-exchange","14":"tag-stock-market","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wise","18":"tag-wise-plc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114629907872118595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}