The neobank N26 will convert into a public company. The company announced this on Thursday. So far, N26, one of the most valuable European start-ups, is organized as a limited liability company (GmbH). With the company name as an AG, the conditions would be created to be able to carry out the future conversion into a European company (Societas Europaea, SE), explained N26. “The conversion to an AG reflects N26’s growth to date and position as a leading digital bank in Europe.” At the same time, the new structure gives N26 more flexibility to drive corporate strategy forward.
With the change in legal form, N26 is likely to fuel speculation about a possible IPO. A few weeks ago, co-founder Valentin Stalf referred to the poor environment, which is currently making it difficult to go public. The manager now told the “world” that the break-even point would be reached in about the next two years. In general, it is only a good time to go public when profitability is within reach. “However, in view of the difficult stock market environment, it will certainly take a few more years before we eventually go public.”
relationship with regulators
With the conversion into an AG, N26 also receives a supervisory board. The committee is headed by fintech investor Marcus Mosen, who was previously head of the payment service provider Concardis, among other things. His deputy will be Jörg Gerbig, Chief Operating Officer of the delivery service Just Eat Takeaway and founder of Lieferando. Other members of the Supervisory Board are the lawyer Barbara Roth from Deutsche Börse, Julian Deutz, CFO of Axel Springer, and the lawyer Robert Kilian from Berlin’s Humboldt University.
According to experts, the composition of the supervisory board also indicates N26’s intention to get along better with the regulatory authorities. A good year ago, the bank accepted a requirement from the financial regulator Bafin, which limited growth to 50,000 new customers a month. In addition, the Bafin imposed a fine of 4.25 million euros because N26 had submitted suspected money laundering reports late.
