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Wise's shareholders deserve the chance to decide two unrelated issues in two separate votes

The Guardian

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July 25, 2025

If Wise, the money transfer company whose £10bn valuation makes it a big fish in London's small pool of quoted financial technology companies, was only proposing to switch its primary listing to New York, its plan would probably sail through.

- Nils Pratley

Wise's shareholders deserve the chance to decide two unrelated issues in two separate votes

If Wise, the money transfer company whose £10bn valuation makes it a big fish in London's small pool of quoted financial technology companies, was only proposing to switch its primary listing to New York, its plan would probably sail through. A few UK shareholders might regret the loss to the London stock market of a success story out of Shoreditch. But they usually vote in favour when management - in this case, the Wise co-founder Kristo Käärmann - says "major US growth opportunities" would be best pursued with a US listing.

However, the listing location isn't the sole big item on the agenda at its extraordinary general meeting on Monday. Controversially, Wise also wants to extend the company's dual-class structure that gives enhanced voting rights to those who hold the class B shares. A chief beneficiary would be Käärmann himself: the supercharged nature of the "Bs" means his 18% economic interest in Wise becomes 55% (though capped at 50% in practice) in terms of voting clout.

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