Wise shares fall despite profit surge
The share price of London-listed money transfer firm Wise dropped by as much as 15%, despite positive profit growth in its latest financial report.
The fintech posted post-tax profits of £354.6m for the year ended 31 March 2024, a 212% year-on-year increase.
Despite the “very strong year” celebrated by co-founder and CEO Kristo Käärmann, the firm’s slowed-down projection of underlying income growth in the medium term of 15% to 20%, a figure lower than analyst forecasts, prompted the share drop.
Wise posted active customer growth of 29% in its preliminary full-year results, reaching 12.8 million users, leading to a 13% boost in cross-border volumes to £118.5bn.
Founded in 2011 as TransferWise, the company was an early pioneer of fintech-powered international remittance.
“We have come a long way from our first customer and already shifted people’s expectations to money without borders, but we’re still in the beginning of our mission,” said Käärmann.
“We will keep focusing on the things that make our customers evangelical about Wise, we’ll continue to scale a company which creates massive value for customers and owners alike over the long term. The best is yet to come.”
In April, Wise’s trading update for the fourth quarter of the financial year caused another share price slip after a slight revenue bump missed the mark for analysts.
