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(Sharecast News) - Payments provider Klarna raised over $1bn on Wednesday, as its long-awaited US initial public offering got underway.
The Swedish fintech, which opted to listed in New York, is understood to have sold 34.3m shares at $40 per share, above the targeted range of between $35 and $37.
The sale is understood to have raised a total of $1.37bn and valued Klarna at just over $15bn.
Klarna was founded in 2006 and was a pioneer in buy-now, pay-later services. In 2021, it was valued at $46bn, having benefited from the boom in online shopping during the pandemic.
Since then, however, higher interest rates and weaker macroeconomic conditions have weighed on the firm.
In the most recent quarter, to June end, losses widened to $52m from $7m a year previously, while revenues rose to $823m from $682m.
Neil Wilson, UK investor strategist at Saxo Markets, said: "The offer was 26x oversubscribed. The question is whether this is a subprime lender that lets you pay for a takeaway in three monthly instalments, or whether it's a financial/payments innovator to replace Visa."
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