After years of trying, the financial payment company Klarna has gone public, a sign that investors are ready to embrace initial public offerings again after a yearslong lull.
Klarna, best known for its buy-now-pay-later loans, is now worth more than $17 billion, after its shares rose 14 percent in their trading debut on Wednesday.
New listings are regarded as a sign of the health of stock markets and investors’ willingness to take on risks like buying into newly public companies.
About 146 companies went public this year, according to the research and investment firm Renaissance Capital, up nearly 54 percent from last year — and double the lows of 2022. Other prominent companies are set to join the public markets as well, including the ticket marketplace StubHub and Gemini, the crypto company founded by the Winklevoss twins.
Klarna’s debut on the New York Stock Exchange saw a healthy “pop,” what Wall Street calls a strong stock rise on its first day of trading, though it was a fraction of the jumps that other companies enjoyed recently. The stock of the design software company Figma leaped 250 percent in late July; that of Circle, a cryptocurrency issuer, climbed 168 percent in its first day. (Both companies’ shares have fallen sharply since then, however.)
The warm reception for Klarna was also seen as a validation of the company, which since its founding 20 years ago has become one of Europe’s most prominent homegrown technology companies. Founded in Stockholm, Klarna operates in 26 countries and has partnerships with big companies including Walmart, Nike and JPMorgan Chase.
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