Klarna has set its sights on New York for its long-awaited IPO that could value the ‘buy now, play later’ company at up to $14bn.
The Fintech filed for an IPO confidentially earlier this year, but pushed back plans due to market volatility caused by Trump’s tariffs.
The news will come as a blow to London, following reports that the Swedish start-up was considering listing on the London Stock Exchange.
The US has enjoyed a raft of successful IPO’s in recent months, so the decision to pass on London in favour of New York wouldn’t have been a difficult one to make.
Figma recently more than doubled on its first day of trading in the US, while a string of space-focused firms have been met with strong investor demand. London-listed Tekcapital has also picked the US to list its AV safety firm Guident, which, like Klarna, has filed for a US IPO confidentially.
Klarna is offering 34.3 million ordinary shares at an expected price range of $35-$37 per share, trading under the symbol “KLAR.”
Of the total offering, Klarna will issue 5.6 million new shares, whilst existing shareholders will sell 28.8 million shares. Underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase an additional 5.1 million shares to cover over-allotments.
Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley are leading the offering as joint book-running managers. Several major banks including BofA Securities, Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank are serving as bookrunners, with additional firms acting as co-managers.
While it will be pretty tricky for UK-based private investors to gain exposure to the Klarna IPO before shares start to trade, they do have the option of taking a position in London-listed Chrysalis Investments Limited, which holds a £125m stake in Klarna, accounting for roughly 15% of the fund’s portfolio.