Shares of fintech company Wise fall after announcement of CFO resignation and CEO going on vacation

Shares of U.K. fintech company Wise fell Monday after the company announced that its chief financial officer, Matt Briers, will leave the company next year and CEO Christo Kaarman will take maternity leave starting in September.

 

Wise shares were down about 3 percent as of 10:50 a.m. London time following the management announcements. "A comprehensive search for a new CFO will begin immediately," Wise said in a statement to investors Monday.

 

Kaarman, who co-founded Wise with Taavet Hinrikus, will take an "extended leave of absence from Wise" from September through December to spend time with family, the company said.

 

Wise CTO Harsh Sinha will take over the reins in the interim.

 

Barriers will step down as Wise's CFO in March 2024 - after Kaarman returns from a sabbatical - to fully recover from a bicycle accident that occurred last year.

 

"After nearly eight years on the job, it's time to think about life after Wise," Briers said in a statement.

 

"I'm incredibly proud of what we've accomplished in these early years at Wise, and I can't get excited about what lies ahead for the business. Wise is growing rapidly, there are great opportunities in front of us, and we are ahead of the trend by figuring out how to make it profitable."

 

In February 2022, Barriers was involved in a bicycle accident where he was hit by a bus. At the time, Wise appointed an interim CFO to replace him while Briers recovered at home.

 

Briers said Wise "is likely to have many CFOs during its first century of existence, and this is just my beginning of the process of passing the reins to the next."

 

During his tenure as CFO, Bryers transformed Wise from a scrappy money transfer company to a publicly traded financial technology giant with millions of users.

 

Wise went public in 2021 in London in a rare direct listing, an alternative to an IPO in which companies offer shares directly to the public without involving financial intermediaries or creating new shares.

 

Briers is the second chief financial officer of a major U.K. fintech company to announce his departure this month, on May 11. On May 11, British digital banking startup Revolut announced that its chief financial officer, Mikko Salovaara, was leaving after just two months on the job for "personal reasons.

 

Analysts at Jefferies believe the leadership change could be a medium-term positive for Wise stock, which has lagged behind the broader European payments and fintech sector recently.

 

They speculated that Sinha could be promoted to CEO on a permanent basis, with Kaarmann becoming executive chairman of the board.

 

This "will allow Kaarmann to focus on a broader role to manage the business, leaving Singh, who gained experience at PayPal and eBay, with day-to-day operations," according to Jefferies analysts.

 

Wise has not said Kaarmann plans to permanently step down as CEO.