Santander-Backed Ebury Starts London IPO Investor Talks

Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro and Jorge Zuloaga
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(Bloomberg) -- Banco Santander SA-backed British payments group Ebury is starting to sound out potential investors for an initial public offering in London, according to a person familiar with the matter, as the Spanish bank and its founders continue to weigh options for the business.

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Ebury is working with firms including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. on the possible listing, people familiar with the preparations said. Should it proceed, an Ebury IPO could take place as soon as the first half of next year, the people said, asking not to be identified as the deliberations are private.

An IPO isn’t necessarily the option Santander will pursue, Chief Financial Officer Jose Garcia Cantera said in July, suggesting that alternatives could include bringing in a strategic investor. Santander had offered to buy the founders of Ebury’s stakes last year, some of the people said.

The payments firm has brought on Bruce Carnegie-Brown as chairman of its board of directors, according to an announcement Friday. He’s been chairman of Lloyd’s of London since 2017, and had been vice chairman and lead independent director of Santander until earlier this year.

Ebury also named Ana Muñoz Fenollosa as its chief financial officer, with Jose Esteban becoming Brazil managing director, the announcement showed.

The listing plans for Ebury could still be postponed or shelved, and no final decisions have been made, the people said. Details of the proposed offering could change and more banks could be added to the lineup, they said. Representatives for Bank of America, Ebury, Goldman Sachs and Santander declined to comment.

Co-founded in 2009 by Chief Executive Officer Juan Lobato, Ebury specializes in cross-border payments, transacting more than £25 billion last year. It has more than 1,600 employees in over 29 countries, according to its website.

Santander acquired a majority stake in Ebury for £350 million ($459 million) in 2020 and added it to its PagoNxt payments platform. The Spanish lender increased its stake in 2022.

Ebury could be valued at as much as £2 billion in an IPO, people familiar with the matter said in March.

A successful float would come as a boost to the London market, which has been struggling with a dearth of IPOs and a string of defections from locally listed companies to New York.

A number of UK financial and fintech firms are also considering going public, such as challenger banks Starling Bank and Revolut Ltd., Bloomberg News has reported.

--With assistance from Swetha Gopinath.

(Updates with chair appointment in headlines and fourth and fifth paragraphs.)

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