Shareholders of Wise, the London-listed payments company, voted overwhelmingly on 30 July 2025 to move the company's primary stock listing from London to New York. The same general meeting extended the supervoting rights attached to Class B shares held by chief executive Kristo Käärmann for an additional ten years, handing him approximately 50% of voting power despite his economic stake of around 18%. The dual outcome — a transatlantic listing shift and a governance extension — is among the most consequential shareholder decisions in the company's history.
Wise said the move to a US primary listing reflects where it sees the greatest depth of investor interest in high-growth technology and fintech companies. New York-listed shares typically attract a broader pool of institutional capital and may command higher valuation multiples than equivalent companies on the London market, a consideration that management framed as being in the long-term interests of all shareholders.
GOVERNANCE CONCERNS AIRED FROM THE INSIDE
The vote was not without dissent. Co-founder Taavet Hinrikus publicly opposed the governance changes, arguing that extending Käärmann's supervoting rights for a further decade gives the chief executive excessive control over the company's direction at a time when Wise is maturing into a large publicly listed business. Hinrikus's objections reflect a broader tension in dual-class share structures, where founders retain decisive influence long after the company has grown well beyond its start-up phase.
Käärmann's Class B shares carry disproportionate voting power relative to the economic interest they represent. With roughly 18% of the economic stake translating into approximately 50% of voting rights, the structure insulates him from shareholder pressure on strategic and governance questions. For the extension to pass, it required the support of a significant portion of ordinary Class A shareholders — indicating that most investors accepted the trade-off between governance risk and the continuity of founding leadership.
Dual-class share structures have been a contentious feature of the London market's efforts to attract technology companies. The London Stock Exchange introduced reforms to its listing rules specifically to accommodate such arrangements, in part to compete with New York. The irony of Wise using a dual-class structure originally accommodated under London rules as it departs for the US was noted by governance commentators.
LONDON LOSES ANOTHER LISTED CHAMPION
The decision to transfer the primary listing to New York adds Wise to a growing list of British-founded or London-listed companies that have concluded the US market offers better conditions for their growth ambitions. The trend has prompted debate among British policymakers, regulators, and market participants about the competitiveness of the London Stock Exchange as a venue for innovative, high-growth businesses.
Wise floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2021 in a direct listing that was widely celebrated as a win for the UK's fintech sector. The company was valued at roughly $11 billion at the time of the float, and its choice of London over New York was seen as a vote of confidence in the British capital's financial infrastructure. The July 2025 shareholder decision reverses that signal.
For Käärmann, the vote consolidates his position as the dominant decision-maker at Wise for the foreseeable future. His supervoting rights, now extended through the mid-2030s, mean that any future effort to challenge his strategy or tenure would require either his co-operation or an extraordinary mobilisation of Class A shareholders — a threshold that the vote itself has demonstrated is difficult to reach.