It will hopefully chip away at the outrageous fees investment banks charge in conventional IPOs
Hurrah, Deliveroo’s float flop didn’t kill the appetite for tech listings in London. Actually, the gloomy theory always looked far-fetched. Investors are capable of distinguishing between a loss-making fast food delivery firm in a highly competitive field and Wise, formerly TransferWise, a profitable Shoreditch-based operation that is already a threat to big banks’ price-gouging practices in the cross-border money transfer game.
Wise’s arrival is different in another way. The innovation – or new feature for the London market, at least – is a “direct listing” model. In short, the company is not raising new capital so there are no new shares to be marketed and then priced. Willing sellers among existing shareholders will simply be given the chance to meet willing buyers, thereby creating a market.
