Klarna, Europe's $6.7 billion buy now, pay later firm, sets wheels in motion for eventual IPO

cnbc.com:

Buy now, pay later firm Klarna has established a holding company in the U.K. that will sit at the top of its corporate structure, in a symbolic move that paves the path for an eventual listing.

A Klarna spokesperson confirmed to CNBC that the Stockholm-based business, which lets shoppers defer payments over a period of instalments, has begun a legal entity restructuring to set up the holding company.

Preparations for the new company have been agreed with some of Klarna's largest shareholders, including Sequoia and Heartland, the spokesperson said.

The Klarna spokesperson said that the move was a precursor to a formal listing, but added these are still «very early days,» and the company has no immediate-term plans to go public.

Klarna also hasn't decided on where it would opt to list, the spokesperson said, and setting up its new legal entity in the U.K. does not necessarily mean that the company will go public there.

It does, however, give Klarna flexibility over which stock exchange it decides on.

The restructuring «is an administrative change that has been in the works for over 12 months and does not affect anyone's roles, nor Klarna's Swedish operations,» the Klarna spokesperson told CNBC via email.

«Klarna Holding will continue to be the regulated financial holding company under the direct supervision of the SFSA and we will continue to hold a Swedish banking license.»

Klarna is a big player in the European payments industry, worth $6.7 billion.

Like PayPal and Stripe, it allows merchants to add checkout functionality to their online stores. It differs from these competitors in its flexible payment plans, known as buy now, pay later.

At the height of the Covid-driven boom in e-commerce, Klarna was worth a whopping