One of the foremost fintech startups from the UK has officially announced plans to hold a direct public listing in the country. That startup is Wise (formerly TransferWise), mainly a cross-border payments service.

• Wise has said it plans to hold a direct listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). It did so with a regulatory filing. At that, it’ll be the first major company to hold a direct listing on the London markets. 

• In a direct listing, a company doesn’t raise fresh capital from investors and existing shareholders can immediately sell their shares on the open markets, without the usual lockup period limitations of a traditional IPO.

• Direct listings are fairly new globally, only tested by a few companies in the US. In the UK, it’s even unheard-of, with Wise being the first to muddle those waters.

• As expected with direct listings, Wise’s trading debut will be based on an auction, with investors, rather than with bank underwriters in a traditional IPO. The company’s shares are expected to start trading on the LSE in the first week of July.

• Wise was founded in 2011 as a simple cross-border money transfer service and has ridden all the way to the top since that time. The company made $586mn in revenue and a pre-tax profit of $57mn in its most recent fiscal year.

• Rumors have it that Wise is targeting a valuation of between $6bn and $7bn in its listing. Privately, the company was valued at $5bn from its last funding round. 

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