UK Treasury Wants Revolut to Go Public on London Exchange

The British treasury wants London-based FinTech Revolut to go public in its home country.

That’s according to a report Friday (Aug. 16) by the Financial Times (FT), which says the treasury plans to play up the London market’s appeal in discussions with Revolut, now the most valuable FinTech in the U.K.

Treasury officials told the FT city minister Tulip Siddiq is expected to meet Revolut this fall as part of a series of talks with businesses. One source said Revolut’s possible listing is likely to come up. The company has no firm plans for an initial public offering (IPO) but has indicated that it was prioritizing a listing on the Nasdaq in the U.S.

The FT notes that such a move — though it could be years away — would be a blow to the U.K. markets, which have lost several companies to New York.

Revolut Chair Martin Gilbert said in July that the company was at least a year out from an IPO and would “keep an open mind” on where that listing would take place.

And the company’s U.K. CEO, Francesca Carlesi, had indicated earlier this year that a London listing was still possible.

“The U.K. is our home and is also one where a lot of our investors come from,” Carlesi said. “We know that companies are always better off to list where their biggest market is.”

Friday’s FT report came on the same day that Revolut announced that it had inked agreements with investors for a secondary share sale which valued the company at $45 billion. Revolut was last valued at $33 billion following a 2021 funding round.

The company says it launched the secondary share sale to generate liquidity to employees and to draw both new and existing investors, and attributed the valuation to its financial performance in recent quarters, including revenues of $2.2 billion in 2023 — a figure that’s 95% higher than that of the prior year — and a profit before tax of $545 million, a company record.

In the first half of this year, Revolut recorded an annual increase in revenue of more than 80% and improved profitability and growth in its customer base, putting it on pace to exceed 50 million customers by the end of 2024, the company said.

The new valuation follows a series of positive developments for Revolut, including success in its three-year quest to obtain a banking license in the U.K. The company was also granted a banking license in Mexico and launched the RevPoints Loyalty Programme, an eSIMs offering and the Revolut X crypto exchange.