Originally published in Svenska Dagbladet by Björn Jeffery, September 2, 2025
Boosted by a buoyant market, it is time for Klarna to list in New York. After a turbulent period for the world, a window has opened that Sebastian Siemiatkowski intends to use.
When you’re about to set sail, you do well to check the weather report first.
When Klarna formally submitted its IPO application in March this year, the outlook looked stormy. Then the barometer swung toward a full gale when Trump announced his “liberation day” and the world was thrown into tariff chaos. One can sense that CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski was disappointed, but he took the wise decision to postpone Klarna’s stock market listing.
The world may not be much clearer on tariffs now. But the market is at least more stable. And with competitor Affirm’s strong performance — up over 40 percent on the stock market since the start of the year — there is a clear demand that Klarna can ride. Siemiatkowski is back and ready to list the company in New York.
An extraordinarily long list of investment banks has agreed on a price range that could value the company at over 132 billion kronor. The company is issuing new shares and can raise around 12 billion kronor in new capital. In addition, several major shareholders are selling part of their holdings, with Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen — who owns clothing chains Vero Moda and Jack & Jones, among others — being the largest, intending to sell up to 7.4 million Klarna shares worth almost 2.6 billion kronor.
Among the sellers are major venture capital firms Sequoia, Silver Lake, BlackRock and Abu Dhabi’s investment fund Mubadala. Parts of the management team are also selling shares worth around 200 million kronor.
But the number that speaks loudest is the one next to Sebastian Siemiatkowski’s name in the prospectus: a zero. He is selling no shares at all. As one of Klarna’s largest shareholders, the signal value is enormous.
The venue for the listing was known but says something about Stockholm, Europe, and Klarna as a company. It is the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE, that applies. If Klarna achieves the highest valuation in the range it would give them a market cap just below Telia. Had they listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, they would have immediately become one of Sweden’s largest listed companies.
The idea of listing in Stockholm is not unreasonable. Klarna itself lists Sweden as its most mature market in its prospectus, and it is both where the company started and where its headquarters are today. That in spite of all this they choose to skip the Stockholm exchange says primarily one thing: everything points westward for Klarna.
In recent years, the push into the United States has been the main focus, and that is where growth lies going forward. Klarna choosing New York is logical, but it is a major loss for Nasdaq Stockholm. If the largest and most successful Swedish companies choose to bypass it, that is not a vote of confidence.
The American stock market has moreover been stronger than Europe for an extended period. Financier Christer Gardell has been on the same track, moving holdings from Europe to the United States to reduce the valuation gap that has emerged across the Atlantic. With that knowledge, which corporate leader can justify taking the risk of listing in Europe — at least if the United States is a realistic option?
In both the timing of the IPO and the choice of exchange, Siemiatkowski has demonstrated an understanding of something many entrepreneurs and company leaders have had to learn the hard way: no one is bigger than the macro.
If there is chaos on the world’s stock markets, it makes no difference how good Klarna is as a company. No one will want to hear about it — at least not there and then. And you can write columns of analysis about why European stock exchanges should be able to command the same kinds of valuations for companies as in the United States, but the fact remains that they do not. Macro factors are larger and weigh more heavily than any individual company.
The same applies when it is positive — and the wind is at your back. Indices made up of fintech companies show a strong comeback in recent years. That benefits Klarna now.
Klarna’s roadshow is now getting under way, selling the company and its shares to investors on the market. Within a week or two, the stock with the ticker KLAR will be available to trade on the New York Stock Exchange. It is an impressive piece of company building that Siemiatkowski and his team have achieved together.
A few months ago, that story was in danger of disappearing amid tariff chaos and market anxiety. Let us hope they manage to get out this time — before the world starts shaking again.
