(Bloomberg) -- Santander Chief Financial Officer Jose Garcia Cantera indicated that a public listing for its UK payments subsidiary is far from a foregone conclusion.
“We are looking at different alternatives” for Ebury, Cantera said in a Bloomberg interview on Wednesday. While an initial public offering is among the options, it’s “not necessarily the one we will pursue going forward,” he said.
One other option would be take a “strategic investor” on board, Cantera said during a press conference. “We have to see if it fits or not, the most important is the strategic sense for the business,” he said.
Ebury has been interviewing investment banks as it’s preparing for an IPO in London that could value it as much as £2 billion ($2.6 billion), Bloomberg reported in March. The firm has appointed Goldman Sachs to work on the potential deal, which could take place in the first half of next year, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
Ebury was founded in 2009 and specializes in cross-border payments. Santander bought a majority stake in the firm for £350 million almost five years ago and subsequently added it to its PagoNxt payments division.
--With assistance from Jorge Zuloaga.
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