Klarna prices IPO at $40, lists on NYSE with about $15B value

Klarna, the Swedish buy now, pay later firm, priced its long-awaited initial public offering at 40 a share late Tuesday and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, giving the company a market value of roughly 15.1 billion and raising about 1.37 billion from the share sale. The offering was priced above the marketed range of 35 to 37, and the stock opened at 52 before easing toward the mid 40s in early trading, according to market data.

The company sold 34.3 million shares at 40 each, but only about 5 million of those were newly issued by Klarna. The remainder were secondary shares sold by existing investors, including venture firms and institutional holders, meaning most of the proceeds went to earlier backers rather than the company itself. Company filings show cofounder and chief executive Sebastian Siemiatkowski did not sell any shares; his stake was valued at roughly 1 billion at the IPO price.

Klarna, founded in 2005, has expanded from a payments startup into a global provider of flexible checkout options and says 111 million consumers have used its services. Its most popular offering allows shoppers to split purchases into four interest free payments...