Shareholders of Wise have approved a controversial plan to shift the UK fintech’s primary listing from London to New York, while also granting co-founder and CEO Kristo Kaarmann another decade of enhanced voting rights—cementing his control of the £11 billion payments business despite owning just 18 per cent of its shares.
The dual-class structure extension, which was opposed by Wise’s former chairman and co-founder Taavet Hinrikus, passed on Monday with 91 per cent of class A and 85 per cent of class B shares voting in favour. A suite of related resolutions underpinning the move and governance structure changes received similarly strong backing.
The result gives Kaarmann, who holds a 55 per cent voting majority, a renewed mandate to direct the company through its US expansion, even as critics accuse Wise of betraying its founding principles of transparency and shareholder democracy.
Hinrikus, who still owns a 5.1 per cent stake, had fiercely opposed the proposal. He accused the company of “burying” the extension of Kaarmann’s power in the fine print of the plan to move the listing, arguing the measures should have been presented as separate votes. In comments ahead of the vote, he warned the board had broken with the “spirit” and “core values” that Wise was founded on.
“It was entirely inappropriate and unfair that the dual-class share extension and the listing move were bundled together,” Hinrikus said.
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