One of the UK’s leading financial firms is set to move its primary stock market listing to America, in another big blow to the London Stock Exchange.
Wise, formerly known as Transferwise, has a £10 billion market capitalisation and handled £145bn in cross-border transactions last year.
While it will keep a secondary listing in London, Wise is to pursue a primary location for share trading in the US, with the company believing it will “accelerate our mission and bring substantial strategic and capital market benefits to Wise and our owners”.
The news will be seen as a disappointment to the LSE after a spate of companies departed across 2024 and 2025 — some moving to the US while others were bought out or taken private.
Earlier this year, the London Stock Exchange Group — who own the stock exchange itself — produced data to suggest moving to the US was not a guarantee of success, claiming those who had done so only to see a share price decline, had seen an average price erosion of 80 per cent.
In UK company size terms, Wise is roughly in market cap to miner Fresnillo or the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust. While it is therefore bigger than many FTSE 100 companies, Wise is not included in the index due to its share structure and the way it first joined the stock exchange.
Moving the primary listing Stateside — while it will not immediately be join an index such as the S&P 500 — Wise aims to eventually join them, which brings additional liquidity benefits as index tracker funds add the company to their automatic baskets of shares.
“While Wise is not initially expected to be eligible for these indices, a US primary listing provides the opportunity to work towards this inclusion,” the company added.
Company results on Thursday alongside the listing announcement showed pre-tax profits rose 17 per cent to £564.8m in the year to the end of March, up from £481.4m. Revenue rose 15 per cent to £1.2bn.
A shareholder meeting to vote on the proposals will be held in the coming weeks. Shares in Wise rose up to nine per cent in morning trading, following the announcement. At around £11.80 per share, they are now at an all time high, having been below their 2021 IPO price for most of the last four years.
