Wise hikes guidance after strong second quarter

Payments specialist Wise upgraded its guidance on Thursday in the wake of a solid second-quarter performance.

The company reported 32% year-on-year (YoY) growth in its active customer base, now touching 7.2 million, propelled by robust word-of-mouth referrals and a marked uptick in adopting the Wise Account.

It said volumes surged to £29.2bn, and revenue reached £258.7m, marking an 8% and 22% year-on-year increase, respectively, or 12% and 26% on a constant currency basis.

The gross yield on balances amplified to 3.8% in the second quarter, from 3.4% in the first, while amounts returned to customers saw a minor hike of 0.1%, now at 1.0%, up from 0.9%.

In light of the solid start for the fiscal year and heightened expectations around interest income, Wise upgraded its 2024 income growth guidance from the initial 28% to 33% to a more optimistic 33% to 38%.

Wise also highlighted that its profitability for the year was set to gain additional support from a higher gross profit margin.

The first half gross profit margin exceeded expectations, clocking in at 74%, attributed to reduced foreign exchange volatility costs and operational losses, further buttressing profitability projections.

Its adjusted EBITDA margin was expected to be elevated in the full year due to the high net yield on customer balances.

“This quarter we launched a new service in China, enabling expatriates to send their salaries back home,” said chief technology and interim chief executive officer Harsh Sinha.

“For business customers we re-commenced onboarding new customers in 13 European countries where we had previously paused new customer onboarding whilst we upgraded our servicing and operational capacity.”

Sinha also noted the launch of Correspondent Services in collaboration with Swift, allowing banks and other financial institutions to route their Swift messages to Wise and send payments through its network.

“Our business performance, progress against our mission and the investments we’re making give us great confidence, and we’re pleased to signal this with our upgraded financial guidance for 2024.”

At 0914 BST, shares in Wise were up 3.75% at 747.2p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.