رولا خلف، محرر Financial Times، تختار قصصها المفضلة في هذا النشرة-weekly. جزء من تقييم أي/company when it goes public is working out which existing stocks it most closely resembles. Investors gauge valuation multiples for the so-called peer group, add a discount or maybe even a premium, and presto -- an IPO share price emerges. For Zilch, a UK fintech preparing for a London listing, this simple-sounding process poses a grave problem.
Zilch's main product is a cheaper alternative to credit cards, offering customers a competitive interest rate that is, in effect, subsidised by selling advertising. Five years ago it was valued in a fundraising at $2bn. Peers included Sweden's Klarna, which had rocketed to a $46bn valuation.
But the peer group has gone from help to extreme hindrance: Klarna has shed 90 per cent of its value since then. Value Zilch next to its Swedish counterpart now and it would be worth, well, close to zilch. True, Klarna had its own idiosyncrasies.
But it's not like other comparisons are less awkward. Affirm, a buy-now-pay-later specialist, still trades above its IPO price but is down 42 per cent from where it closed the day it went public, and 9 per cent this year. Upstart, which focuses on personal loans, has fallen 92 per cent over five years and halved this year so far.
What about earlier generations of consumer finance companies that Zilch hopes to usurp? There's Vanquis, a subprime credit card lender that has been restyling itself as a fintech, but has been around in various forms since the 1800s. No luck there either: its shares are down almost 40 per cent over the past 12 months, and 80 per cent over five years. Zilch may argue it isn't really like any of these.
It aims to mix the low interest rates and convenience of companies such as Klarna with the stickier customer relationship of credit card lenders. Since its service can be used anywhere -- unlike products that are offered by retail partners at the checkout -- it should not be reliant on a handful of large merchant partners, while the quick turnover of its loan book makes it less exposed to interest rate moves. Its finances do seem to be on the up, too.
Zilch reported a net loss of £10.5mn in the year to March 2025, but showed a route to profitability. Revenue nearly doubled, massively outpacing the mere 7 per cent growth in operating expenses, creating what financial analysts call "positive jaws". Zilch would be one of a kind in one important way: by listing in London.
The City has not always been welcoming for tech groups, but scarcity can be a virtue. The listing of Raspberry Pi in 2024 with a valuation of just over £500mn would barely have registered in the US, but created a sizeable stir in the UK. Its shares have risen almost 150 per cent since.
By the same token, Zilch would be assured attention from exchange executives and politicians desperate to liven up the long-quiet IPO market. And other fintech IPO hopefuls such as Zopa are watching closely. If Zilch can secure a better reception than its ailing listed peers, it may not be one-off for long.
المصدر: Financial Times Companies · لخّصه HeadlinesBriefing