UAE Payment Firm Finablr To Launch London IPO

Finablr, the UAE-based holding company behind payment and foreign exchange brands UAE Exchange, Travelex Holdings and Xpress Money, confirmed on Tuesday it is set to launch an initial public offering in London.

Three unnamed sources told Reuters the IPO is likely to raise around $500 million and the company is set to start meetings with investors in the US and Europe this week.

According to its website, brands operated by Finablr last year processed more than 150 million transactions worth $114.5 billion. The company has a direct presence in 44 countries and a network reach across 170 countries.

“As a group, we have always been highly entrepreneurial and our success comes from a concerted focus on putting the customer at the centre, serving them in the way they want to be served,” Dr BR Shetty, founder and co-chairman of Finablr, was quoted as saying in a press statement.

“We have tremendous opportunities ahead of us and we are well placed to capture these, through the significant investments we have made in building capabilities and the strong management team we have put in place.  I am very excited about what we have built and this is the right time to consider the future growth of Finablr and whether the business would benefit from becoming a listed company.”

Fellow UAE-based firm Network International, which is part-owned by Emirates NBD, Dubai’s biggest bank, will start trading on the London Stock Exchange on April 11 and has been valued in the region of $3 billion.

Last month, Mastercard signed an agreement for the US financial services firm to make a $300 million cornerstone investment in Network International’s London IPO.

When asked last month by Arabian Business about Finablr's plans, Network International CEO Simon Haslam said: "While I cannot comment on Finablr, it is a good business - albeit not a payments business - and I’m sure they will do well in pursuing their own strategic options.

"However, we are very confident in the prospects of our business. We are the only pan-regional provider of digital payment solutions at scale, with presence across the entire payments value chain in the world’s most under-penetrated payments market."