Following the announcement on 17 June 2021 of its expected intention to float, Wise today confirms its intention to undertake a direct listing.
Wise will apply for admission of its class A shares to the standard listing segment of the Official List of the FCA and to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s main market for listed securities. Admission is expected to occur in early July 2021.
The Company will not set a price in respect of the class A shares or offer any class A shares in connection with the direct listing. The opening price of the class A shares will be determined in the opening auction on the date of Admission. The London Stock Exchange will be adopting changes to the standard opening auction for the date of Admission only.
Kristo Käärmann, CEO and co-founder of Wise, said:
“I am pleased to confirm our plans for a direct listing in London. 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, OwnWise, which is designed to reward customers who buy Wise shares and stick with us for the longer-term. This direct listing is about further aligning our mission and our shareholder base and I’m enormously proud that customers want to be a part of that.”
The Shares are expected to be admitted to the standard listing segment of the Official List of the FCA and to trading on the main market of the London Stock Exchange in early July 2021.
Upon listing, Wise will have a dual class share structure in place with two classes of shares in issue, class A shares and class B shares, in order to support Wise’s focus on its mission as it transitions into the public markets. Class B shares hold 9 votes per share, are strictly non-transferable and, amongst other voting right cancellation events, expire on the fifth anniversary of any listing.
All of Wise’s shareholders and holders of vested options as at 23 May 2021 are entitled to elect to receive 50% of their class A share holding in the Company with additional corresponding class B shares on a 1:1 basis (save for Kristo Käärmann, CEO and co-founder of Wise, who is entitled to elect to receive 100% of his class A share holding in the Company with additional corresponding class B shares on a 1:1 basis).
The voting rights attaching to the class B shares are, subject to certain regulatory approvals, capped so that no shareholder can, by virtue of the class B shares they hold, cast more than one vote less than 35% of the eligible votes in respect of any shareholder decision (save for Kristo Käärmann who, for so long as he is CEO of the Company, will be capped in respect of his class B shares at one vote less than 50% of the eligible votes in respect of any shareholder decision and if, at any time, he is not CEO of the Company he will be capped at one below 35% of the eligible votes in respect of any shareholder decision). The class B shares are non-tradeable and will not be listed.
