To buy Wise shares you will need to have an active and funded trading or investing account open with your broker, and if you don’t have one of those in place you will need to get one up and running.
UK brokers that offer Wise share dealing include;
How much will it cost to buy Wise Shares?
Charges will vary depending on how and where you invest in or trade Wise shares
For example, if you buy physical stock through Hargreaves Lansdown, online, you will pay £11.95 in commission for the trade. At AJ Bell that charge will be just £9.95 and could be lower if you are an existing account holder who trades regularly. At IG Group the cost will £8.00 per deal in physical shares, but again there are discounted commissions for existing active traders.
If you are looking to trade Wise shares via CFDs then you will pay 0.10% of the consideration of your trade subject to a minimum ticket charge of £10.00 online, or £15.00 if you trade over the phone with IG. Whilst at CMC Markets commissions on UK equity CFDs are set at 0.10% with a £9.00 minimum charge.
When can you buy shares in Wise?
Wise looks to list in London in a deal that could value the business at £9.0 billion
FX conversion and payments company Wise (formerly known as TransferWise) could soon be floating in London. The company’s intention to list was first signalled back in February with the name change, which was intended to better define the groups expanding portfolio of services.
The business was founded by two Estonian ex-pats, who found themselves being paid in Euro’s while working in London. They were frustrated by the complications and costs of converting and transferring foreign currencies, so they decided to do something about it.
One of the founders had been the first employee at Skype and the idea of using a peer to peer network, through which, like-minded people could exchange currencies and transfer funds seemed like a natural fit.
Will the Wise share price go up as the company grows?
That was 10 years ago and the business has grown considerably since then, A $319 million funding round, that closed in July 2020, valued the group at $5.0 billion
However, with a customer base of more than 10 million users Wise is thought to be aiming for a far higher valuation in its stock market debut, with Reuters reporting that it has its eyes on a £9.0 billion market cap, which equates to a valuation of $12.67 billion.
Where will Wise shares be traded?
Wise is likely to list in London and not New York or Amsterdam
A multi-billion pound UK listing by a high profile European Fintech would help to vindicate Rishi Sunak’s plan to make the UK capital the natural home for technology businesses that wish to go public.
Wise will not be using an IPO, with its associated roadshow, book build and trading debut. Instead, the company is opting for a direct listing under which, subject to regulatory approval, the shares of the company are listed on the LSE and the valuation of the company is determined by an opening auction.
Though a direct listing is quite a rare beast in London, we have seen several tech businesses such as Roblox and Coinbase Global recently adopt this route to market in the US
Given that Wise’s ethos has always been about reducing costs and simplifying processes, the more straightforward and far cheaper direct listing sounds like a good fit.
One of the benefits of a direct listing is that all investors are treated equally, in that they can only secure shares in the company when it starts trading and not before.
Of course, to be able to invest in, or trade Wise shares you will need to have a suitable brokerage account. So for example, through IG Group you could buy physical shares in Wise or trade the stock via CFDs or Spread Bets.
ETX Capital has also highlighted the potential listing to its clients, however, it doesn’t currently offer physical share trading or indeed ISA accounts. Brokers that do provide those services include AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown and Interactive Investor.
Once Wise has received final regulatory approval the direct listing could happen almost immediately, so it might be worth contacting your broker to ensure that they will be able to trade in this most interesting of new issues as and when it goes live.
With over 35 years of finance experience, Darren is a highly respected and knowledgeable industry expert. With an extensive career covering trading, sales, analytics and research, he has a vast knowledge covering every aspect of the financial markets.
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