Adyen soars in year’s biggest European tech IPO

AMSTERDAM: Shares of Dutch payment processing firm Adyen NV surged as much as 81% in the minutes following its market debut on Euronext Amsterdam.

It’s a reassuring start for Europe’s biggest technology public offering this year, which at 240 euros was priced at the top end of its range. Adyen was trading at 433 euros.

Kempen & Co NV analyst Anil Akbar, who gave the stock its first buy rating, said in a note shortly before the market opened that Adyen is showing industry leading growth rates and, in the medium term, profitability metrics.

The IPO was “well-timed,” he said. Adyen’s successful initial public offering comes after several companies struggled this year to sell shares amid stock market volatility and political uncertainty.

Issuers in the region raised about US$23bil and postponed or withdrew IPOs worth close to US$6bil, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“I’m very proud to be building this compa- ny with such a great team,” chief executive officer and co-founder Pieter van der Does said in a statement.

“This listing will only help us to continue to do what we are doing now: helping our merchants grow and reshaping the payments industry.”

Adyen processes payments for Uber Technologies Inc, Netflix Inc, EasyJet Plc, Facebook Inc and Spotify Technology SA, and generated more than one billion euros in revenue last year. —Bloomberg