Wise PLC
Information Technology
North America
Investment summary

Wise develops and operates a global payment infrastructure. Wise reported 4.6mn customers in 4Q22, up 29% YoY, including 4.3mn Personal and 0.27mn Business customers. The total volume of transactions grew by 38% YoY to £21.4bn in 4Q22. The company reported £154mn in revenue in 4Q22 and £560mn in FY22, keeping the take rate at 0.72% in 4Q22. The company processed £76.4bn in cross-border payments in FY22, up 40% YoY. Cross-currency takes rate was reduced by 7bps to 0.63% in FY22. The fees of the Wise platform are up to eight times cheaper than leading UK banks. Over 49% of Wise transfers are delivered instantly, arriving in less than 20 seconds. Wise Account lets people keep over 50 currencies in one place and convert between them. Wise Transfer allows customers to send money to more than 80 countries. Wise offer is highly competitive compared to the offering of high street banks, in parti... Wise develops and operates a global payment infrastructure. Wise reported 4.6mn customers in 4Q22, up 29% YoY, including 4.3mn Personal and 0.27mn Business customers. The total volume of transactions grew by 38% YoY to £21.4bn in 4Q22. The company reported £154mn in revenue in 4Q22 and £560mn in FY22, keeping the take rate at 0.72% in 4Q22. The company processed £76.4bn in cross-border payments in FY22, up 40% YoY. Cross-currency takes rate was reduced by 7bps to 0.63% in FY22. The fees of the Wise platform are up to eight times cheaper than leading UK banks. Over 49% of Wise transfers are delivered instantly, arriving in less than 20 seconds. Wise Account lets people keep over 50 currencies in one place and convert between them. Wise Transfer allows customers to send money to more than 80 countries. Wise offer is highly competitive compared to the offering of high street banks, in particular in FX and international transfers. Wise is one of the few profitable players among recent IPOs. Profit for FY22 reached £32.9mn, up 6.5% YoY.

Details
Ticker
WISEa.L
Trading currency
GBp
Last close price, (currency)
515.0
Common shares outstanding
1,423,479,670
Preferred shares
0
MktCap, (currency) mn
6,428
Target price
767.00
Current opinion
Buy
Description

Wise PLC is a global financial technology company with a key focus on cross-border payments. The Company develops infrastructure with local payment systems, regulatory and compliance coverage, payments technology over application programming interface (API), and customer support and operations. Its payment infrastructure products include Wise Transfer, Wise Account, Wise Business, and Wise Platform. The Wise Transfer enables its customers to send money abroad. The Wise Account offers multi-currency banking services in over 50 currencies. The Wise Business provides a business account with features of the Wise account tailored to the needs of small and medium businesses, like bank feeds, mass payouts, and multi-user access. The Company’s Wise Platform is used by banks, credit unions, financial institutions, and enterprise partners.

Industry view (TAM)

The global international transfers market was £18trln in 2020, according to EDC and Wise. The fee paid by people and businesses for this service amounted to £190bn. Personal transfers amounted to £2trln paying £63bn revenue fee, £7trln was transferred by businesses and SMB, paying for the service £118bn fees, and £9trln was the volume transferred by enterprise paying £9bn fees. The Personal segment includes consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-business payments with broad use cases from personal remittances, eCommerce transactions, real estate investments, and other bills. SMB segments include B2C and B2B payments from wages and salaries payments, freelancing, and subcontracting payments to accounts payables for services imported from abroad. EDC estimates £24trln of international flows by 2026 (5% CAGR 2020-2026).

Pros
  1. Wise provides a cheap service compared to a traditional bank (0.7% average fee by Wise compared to 3-7% av. high street bank fee)
  2. Wise offers fast service (49% transfers instant and 83% in less than 24 hours compared to 2-5 business days for banks)
  3. Wise service is convenient and transparent
  4. Wise demonstrated a strong consumer and revenue growth
  5. Wise reports positive operating and net income, maintaining good cost control compared to fintech peers
Cons
  1. High competition between fintech companies and traditional banks in the transfers segment
  2. Wise has limited offerings for customers
  3. Legal and regulatory regimes may change (Wise holds 63 licences in 12 countries, enabling operations in 40 countries, including 30 EEA member states, and 49 US states, supporting over 2,500 foreign exchange routes as of July 2021)
  4. High inflation may negatively affect financial results and valuation
  5. Wise has exposure to FX currency fluctuations and interest rate changes
Risks
  1. Regulatory risks, including AML, CTF, personal data, anti-corruption regulations and capital requirements regulations
  2. Risks of cyber-attacks
  3. Cost inflation
  4. Exposure to risks in the codebase and financial losses as a result
  5. Exposure to risks of frauds and scams
Historical price chart
Loading...
Peer Group (top 5)

Company RIC Market Capitalization, $mn Last reporting year P/E Fwd 1Y P/E Fwd 2Y EV/EBITDA 1Y fwd EV/EBITDA 2Y fwd EV/Revenues 1y fwd EV/Revenues 2y fwd
Wise PLC WISEa.L 7,099 2022-03-31 49.1 38.4 25.8 21.4 6.1 4.9
Adyen NV ADYEN.AS 43,609 2022-12-31 58.9 43.5 40.8 29.6 20.3 15.7
Worldline SA WLN.PA 11,788 2022-12-31 16.7 14.0 13.2 11.4 3.4 3.1
Nexi SpA NEXII.MI 10,530 2022-12-31 13.5 10.9 11.1 9.7 5.7 5.2
Network International Holdings PLC NETW.L 1,688 2022-12-31 17.5 12.5 9.3 7.6 3.9 3.3
Sage Group PLC SGE.L 9,300 2022-09-30 25.5 22.9 16.9 15.6 4.0 3.7
Financials
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Revenue 232 376 580 735 1,042 1,403 1,800
Growth 62% 54% 27% 42% 35% 28%
EBITDA 23 50 100 108 290 407 505
EBITDA margin 9.9% 13.3% 17.2% 14.6% 27.9% 29.0% 28.1%
Net income 13 19 43 43 124 186 232
Net margin 5.8% 5.0% 7.3% 5.9% 11.9% 13.3% 12.9%
Net debt -109 -113 -258 -344 -344 -344 -344
MktCap 14,264 9,691 9,691 9,691 9,691

Historical Multiples

2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
EV/Revenue 24.1 12.7 9.0 6.7 5.2
EV/EBITDA 140.2 86.8 32.2 23.0 18.5
P/E 335.0 224.3 78.4 52.1 41.8
Charts