Revolut eyes up London for £60bn float

Revolut has placed London at the top of its list of destinations for a stock market float, The Mail on Sunday understands.

The fintech giant, which last week finally received a UK banking licence following a five-year wait, is said to have put the City in ‘pole position’ for a future listing following discussions with officials at the London Stock Exchange.

Boasting an estimated value of £56 billion, the company is also thought to have been encouraged by indications that it would swiftly enter the FTSE 100 index of blue-chip British firms should it opt for a UK listing.

Revolut’s preference for a London float marks a stark change in what had previously been a tempestuous relationship between the fintech’s billionaire boss, Nik Storonsky, and Britain’s financial regulators.

The company first applied for a UK banking licence in 2021 and, two years later, said approval was ‘imminent’.

But there was a hiccup when the company’s then-auditor said £477 million of revenue – about three-quarters of turnover for 2021 – could not be verified and may have been misstated.

All smiles: Revolut’s preference for a City float marks a stark change in what had been a tempestuous relationship between its boss, Nik Storonsky (pictured), and financial regulators

Eventually, in July 2024, it was granted a licence ‘with restrictions’ from the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority, before receiving a full licence last week. The company also suffered a setback in April when it was slapped with a £3 million fine by Lithuanian regulators for failures in its anti-money laundering controls.

The agonising process prompted Storonsky, 41, to throw a tantrum at the ‘long and tiring’ saga and attack the UK as a place to do business, raising fears that Revolut could instead opt for a listing in New York, dealing another blow to the LSE’s global competitiveness. But tempers appear to have cooled, with a senior Revolut source telling The Mail on Sunday that the LSE had ‘moved a long way’ to address the company’s concerns about a UK float. ‘The atmosphere has changed and we recognise the need to compete with New York,’ they added.

Revolut is also said to have warmed to the London market due to its ‘less onerous’ filing rules compared with those of the US.

While a timeline for the listing has not been set, Revolut’s UK boss Francesca Carlesi told The Sunday Times a float would not occur until 2028 at the earliest. The firm is also understood to be waiting for its accounts to be signed off next March – the first set of numbers that will be scrutinised by accounting giant EY.

They said approval from a major auditor was considered vital to bolster Revolut’s financial credibility with potential investors.

Revolut’s £56 billion valuation, based on a private funding round last year, would place it among the 15 biggest companies on the LSE and within striking distance of Lloyds and Barclays.

But, Will Mahon-Heap, Revolut’s former head of licensing, who steered the firm through its efforts to secure banking approvals in multiple countries, said the company was aiming to fetch a value of as much as £76 billion when it floats.

It would also provide a much-needed boost for the UK stock market, which in recent years has been criticised for failing to attract listings from major tech firms and from which several large companies have defected to the US for higher valuations.

Revolut was founded in 2015 and has 13 million customers in the UK and 70 million around the world. Its new licence means it will be able to start lending in Britain and offer deposits that will be protected up to the value of £120,000 under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

The company is also thought to be planning a major push into the US market, primarily with offers of new credit cards, while in the UK it is aiming to start providing mortgages. It has also plans to invest £3 billion in the UK, creating 1,000 jobs.