Wise Share Discussion Threads

[1pencil] 26/10/2021 14:25

Its very hard to discern exactly what the free float is following a direct listing.

Much of the press commentary refers to an 'IPO' and 'IPO price', neither of which is correct as the company never issued shares only a small amount were supplied to assist with market liquidity.

My understanding is the maximum free float is limited to 22% (or thereabouts) being the amount not subject to lock-in as detailed at time of listing.

This however is the absolute maximum and is dependant on existing holders selling via open market which they may or may not wish to do.

[1pencil] 26/10/2021 13:53

The sale of shares by Taavet Hinrikus through his investment company OÜ Notorious has now been completed.


Price(s) Volume(s)

£8.15 10,000,000




Hopefully this removes some of the uncertainty around the possible overhang and may have brought in another institution.

The stock is fairly tightly held between existing holders, this may have been the first opportunity for outside investors to actual purchase stock.

[eaglebeagle] 26/10/2021 13:41

You mean every Fintech service offered?

[stutes] 25/10/2021 10:00

30th November announcement has to be more than good for Wise and its ipo IBs. Anything less and the company becomes a target and forget about Class A or B shares, the Chairman surely can't block a takeover following his recent ssle?

[stutes] 25/10/2021 09:19

In my opinion it looks as if IBs that were involved in this ipo have some questions to answer

[dabekt] 24/10/2021 23:43

There are two major reasons for selling "today":1. Need money urgently now, or2. Higher stock price today than tomorrow.The sale was, in my opinion, for one of the above two reasons and my guess as to which reason is as good as yours.

[stutes] 22/10/2021 19:03

4% discount for shares sold by Chairman and the shares fall 4.9% on last nights close.

I'm puzzled why the Chairman and ipo advisers didn't take the opportunity to offload the 1% at the time of the ipo - opo £88/share, sold 1% of share equity at 815p - not much jof a gain from July to October?

[eaglebeagle] 22/10/2021 14:35

Oh and the thing about wise being 8 times cheaper it ignores sunk cost. The resource is there the marginal cost is nil

[eaglebeagle] 22/10/2021 14:34

Stutes, I think you are miles off target with your summary of UK banking. It’s the same argument I’ve heard for 20 years. In short, Retail banking is almost a loss leader in terms of current accounts. International payments are small beer in retail terms. Cards have never been stronger. Mortgage margins are very tight and require access to cheap funding to support them and no fintech have it. In terms of the tech, the banks are almost there because you see it’s easier to create tech (copy if you like) than it is to gain customers. If anything the fintech have just done the marketing for the banks.

[stutes] 22/10/2021 14:33

Bsrclays analyst reckons Wise is ×8 cheaper than banks - after take rate reduced, how can banks compete on cost without hurting profit? I still look at Wise as payment processing Ryansir and the banks are the old sovereign airlines. After all the banks are so regulated that I consider them to be quasi- nationalised. In such a setting the like of Wisr can only win agsinst the banks in the end - bureaucracy, bank network, IT failures and loss of business to fintech.

[stutes] 22/10/2021 14:16

Think the two class share structure gives founders a lot of say in any takeover of Wise.

The banks are said to have forced Wise to reduce its take % but if you look at Barclays they have lost out to the like of Klara, PayPal, Applepay and Google pay. They need to invest in new IT as well fixing the existing banking system. UK banks are also facing competition from US big banks muscling in on retail banking.

Overall they might need to spend big on selective targets to fix a problem rather than years of IT spending which we all know can come with big problems post launch - TSB. Universal Crrdit etc. The big banks need to reinvent themselves quickly to compete and that means cloud, fewer branches, lower cost bsse and more internet banking.

[conwyrebel] 22/10/2021 11:27

Guessing it is now a takeover tgt…

[stutes] 22/10/2021 11:16

Wise share price has not lived up to the like of Darktrace's out ipo price the latter, a company eith a founding shareholder facing extradition to USA. The founding directors of Wise seem, in my opinion a bit prone to the odd own goal?

[stutes] 22/10/2021 09:40

Wouldn't it be somewhat ironic if some or all of 10m shares, sold by the Chairman, were bought by an established High Street bank?

[stutes] 22/10/2021 09:33

The role of Wise' ipo bankers might need to be looked at by the Regulators considering the timing of the shsre sale, etc. If the market is unhappy with recent issues perhaps a quick review might providevsome assurances?

[thaiger] 22/10/2021 09:27

Look at my 67 post, following directors' sales seemed a wise move!

[stutes] 22/10/2021 08:32

I believe he's raised circa £500m to fund his plan to invest in new businesses. The majority of the cash is from a loan against his shares in Wise. More details on the book building likely to be issued today.

I don't know why this wasn't done or flagged up st the time of the ipo? After all raising large sums takes time and planning?

[conwyrebel] 21/10/2021 17:42

So am i correct in reading this as the ex founder/ceo is selling 10% of his A shares and getting a loan over 50% of his others underwritten by Goldmansachs to invest in other companies! Is that right??

[stutes] 21/10/2021 17:29

I wonder when the rumours started in the City over the above transactions?

[stutes] 21/10/2021 15:31

How can Wise be hit for over 10% drop when it is trading in line with expectations while Barclays is seeing some of its core businesses facing stiff fintech competition. How long will IB gain from M&A or ipo if Evergrande crashes or delta variant causes another lockdown? What about tapering fallout?

Overall I'd rather be in a growth firm rather than a mature one.

[stutes] 21/10/2021 09:50

Wise is trading in line eith expectation yet the share price has fallen 9% in recent days.

Yet Barclays has surprised the market re IB but if you drill down the bank side is seeing significant drop in credit card revenue/profit. When the gravy days from IB are over, how will the bank side counter the drop in profit if fintech has successfully taken business away from the bank?

I remain sceptical of the bounce in bank shares.