Adyen executive says currently no plans for 2018 IPO
By Toby Sterling
AMSTERDAM, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Adyen, which handles the payments back-end for many of the largest internet companies, is not actively preparing an initial public offering in 2018, a top executive at the Dutch fintech firm said on Friday.
But Adyen's Chief Commerce Officer Roelant Prins did not completely rule out the possibility in a Reuters interview.
"We're exploring various options, but we haven't initiated - we don't have banks that are working for us on this," he said at the company's headquarters in Amsterdam.
"There are no plans for 2018 right now."
Adyen, which handles payments for Facebook, Spotify, Uber and Netflix, and is considered one of Europe's most promising fintech companies, was valued at $1.5 billion in a 2015 investment round.
But Adyen has been growing rapidly since then and its revenue nearly doubled to $727 million in 2016. In April it forecast similar growth for 2017.
"We're very happy with the progress this year," Prins said, adding that Adyen will disclose some details of its financial performance in February.
He said deals struck in recent years to bypass banks and connect directly to the back-end of credit card companies were paying off. That has been "a game changer for a lot of our merchants, as far as higher approval rates (fewer failed payments) and more efficient processing, so we've really met our goals this year," Prins said.
He said that in 2018 the company will increasingly target mid-size customers. He said mid-size companies see big companies "like Uber or Spotify" using Adyen and want to follow suit.
Prins cited hotel chains that operate in several countries and need to integrate on-site and online payments as an example.
"We're absolutely looking to open that up as well and make our solution more approachable for that category."
Adyen competes with Vantiv, which agreed to buy WorldPay in July, but less so with U.S. startup Stripe, which targets smaller online stores.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters in November the company was laying the groundwork for an 2018 IPO, but had not given any bank a mandate.
Prins said on Friday the company is not under pressure from either its investors or its employees to launch an IPO.
"We have the ability to stay private for a long time. We've been profitable since 2011 and we're growing quickly," he said. (Reporting by Toby Sterling; additional reporting by Arno Schuetze and Eric Auchard; editing by Alexander Smith)
