Goldman Sachs' fintech IPO making millionaires of MDs and… mushroom farmers
Fintech IPOs are resurfacing and UK fintech employees are among the beneficiaries. The latest example is payments fintech Ebury, whcih going public next year with the help of Goldman Sachs. Its £2bn ($2.59bn) expected valuation may be significantly lower than Revolut's most recent valuation of $40bn, but it's still making millionaires of a fair few employees.
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According to Ebury's most recent confirmation statement in December 2023, the fintech had 3,619,767 shares. At a market cap of £2bn, each share would be worth £552.52. The individual shareholder with the most shares is, naturally, Ebury's founder.
Ebury CEO Juan Lobato reportedly had 62,344 shares as of the December statement which would net him a cool £34.45m. Prior to founding Ebury, Lobato worked at McKinsey for two and a half years, then became CEO digital media distribution platform Beam.TV. Other Ebury execs who stand to make millions include Enrique-Diaz Alvarez, a former SocGen prop trading MD currently serving as Ebury's chief risk officer. He had 5270 shares in the statement, which would be worth £2.91m.
Two people set to be over £20m richer from the IPO are board member Fabio Salvalaggio and his spouse Annabella. They are each major shareholders, owning £11.74m and £10.72m respectively. Salvalaggio was a former director of harbourmaster capital management, a European leveraged loan manager bought by Blackstone's GSO Capital Partners in 2013.
One of Ebury's longest-serving beneficiaries is Jane Sim, former director of sales and chief people officer. She spent 11 years at the fintech, has £11.17m in stock and retired to Spain three years ago.
Outside of Ebury employees, one of the richest individuals from the IPO will be Bank of Ireland deputy chairman Richard Goulding, who owns £6.34m in stock. Goulding is also a non-executive director at Zopa, a UK digibank also toying with the prospect of an IPO, so this may not be the last of his fintech IPO jubilations.
One of Ebury's more peculiar investors is Caerwyn Prothero, a mushroom farmer for Cambridge Mushrooms. Prothero previously spent six years at RBS and was head of innovation at payments fintech CashFlows; he is currently a director at private investment firm Midsummer Capital in addition to his gourmet mushroom enterprise.
One Ebury alum set to make over a million was previously engaged in a legal battle with the firm; Golda Ajayi alleged in a 2020 tribunal that the firm had given her the incorrect amount of shares. Although both the claim and Ebury's confidentiality breach counterclaim failed, the case revealed that Ebury's share price in 2013 was £17.80, meaning employees who joined as early as then would have received a...3,100% markup on their equity investments. Ajayi was said to have held over 3,000 shares at one point, but the confirmation statement revealed she had 2,135 shares more recently, worth £1.18m
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