Klarna, Europes $6.7 billion buy now, pay later firm, sets wheels in motion for eventual IPO
Summary
Buy now, pay later firm Klarna has established a holding company in the U.K. that will sit at the top of its corporate structure, in a symbolic move that paves the path for an eventual listing. A Klarna spokesperson confirmed to CNBC that the Stockholm-based business, which lets shoppers defer payments over a period of instalments, has begun a legal entity restructuring to set up the holding company. The U.K. was originally set to enforce tough new regulations on the buy now, pay later industry, with plans to require affordability checks and clearer communication in the advertisement of such services. Britain has reportedly been considering shelving those plans after a number of the biggest players said, in talks with the government, that they may be forced to leave the U.K. if they are subjected to "heavy-handed" regulation. Bosses at Klarna and Block, which owns buy now, pay later service Clearpay, had lashed out at certain aspects of the U.K.s regulation plans, including a measure which would have exempted e-commerce giant Amazon from being subjected to the rules.