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LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) – Wise shares were indicated to open at 825 pence on Wednesday, which would give the financial technology company a market capitalisation of 8.2 billion pounds ($11.32 billion), Refinitiv prices showed.
An auction process has begun to determine the price of Class A Wise shares ahead of their official London trading debut and the indicated price was 820 pence at 0936 GMT. The bid-ask spread in the auction was as wide as 450 pence to 1000 pence.
As of 0936 GMT, nearly 37 million shares had traded in the pre-open auction.
Wise shares, which are officially due to start trading at 1000 GMT, is set to crown a record breaking year for London listings and could pave the way for several other fast-growing British firms in the financial technology sphere, a dozen investors, entrepreneurs and experts told Reuters. read more
The cross-border payments company, one of Britain’s most well-known fintech unicorns, last month launched direct listing on the London Stock Exchange, which allows for a listing without a public offering of shares.
“(We) could see the valuation touch 9 billion pounds through the course of the day,” said John Woolfitt, director at Atlantic Capital in London. “We are bullish on the firm and the longer-term prospects beyond today.”
Wise, which began life as Transferwise, was valued at 5 to 6 billion pounds in April, sources told Reuters.
Several tech companies including Deliveroo (ROO.L), Trustpilot (TRST.L) and Moonpig (MOONM.L) have already listed in London this year and helped push initial public offerings (IPO) to a record high.
“It’s definitely helpful to have well-known brands with strong success stories on domestic markets. They are few and far between so far, but the more that come to market the better,” said Daniel Turgel, a partner in the M&A and corporate practice at White & Case.
($1 = 0.7242 pounds)
Reporting by Abhinav Ramnarayan; Editing by David Clarke and Jason Neely
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