Global Payments Platform Finablr To Raise $200M In IPO

Finablr, a United Arab Emirates (UAE) payments company, is gearing up to launch an initial public offering in the U.K., aiming to raise at least $200 million.

The Financial Times, citing the company, reported Finablr plans to list on the London Stock Exchange and is looking at selling existing shares via the IPO as well. The report noted the company hasn’t made a final determination if it will move ahead with its plans — but if it does, the funding would go to reduce its debt, which stood at $564.2 million at the end of last year, as well as to expand.  Finablr told The Financial Times that the company’s aim is to have 25 percent or more free float and that it expects the stock to be included in the FTSE U.K. indices.  “The globalization of commerce fueled by mobility, the increasing demand for seamless payments and the creation of connected communities are all structural drivers for growth,” Promoth Manghat, chief executive, told the paper. “Our integrated global platform sits at the center of these intersecting trends.”

Finablr supports cross-border payments and other payment services in forty-four countries and has agency relationships in at least 170 countries. That gives the company access to about 60 percent of the migrant population around the world. The Financial Times noted that last year it processed $114.5 billion in payments.

Finablr has been eyeing an IPO for some time now — founder and chairman B.R. Shetty said during a Dubai conference in February that the IPO would happen in March. At the time the executive said it wasn’t clear what the size of the IPO would be but that it expected a good response from investors.  Finablr started in April of 2018 as an umbrella for cross-border companies like Travelex, Xpress Money, and the UAE Exchange. Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and JPMorgan are reportedly all involved in the IPO.