financemagnates.com
Israeli broker, eToro, which made its name with the social trading feature, is planning for a merger with a blank-check acquisition company to publicly list its shares on Nasdaq, according to local news agency, Calcalist.
In addition, the report outlined that the trading company, which recently revealed that the total number of traders jumped to 20 million, is looking for a listing valuation of $10 billion.
However, eToro dismissed the report, calling it a rumour. “We never comment on market rumours,” an eToro spokesperson told Finance Magnates.
eToro Skyrockets
Established in 2006 by two brothers, Yoni Assia and Ronen Assia, the Israeli company grew aggressively over the years. It ended the year 2020 with a revenue of $600 million as the trading volumes skyrocketed to $1.5 trillion.
However, the reports of eToro going public is not new as earlier, the same publication revealed the broker’s intentions for public listing with a $5 billion valuation. Then, the anonymous sources revealed that eToro is considering a SPAC merger to expedite the listing process.
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies or SPACs are shell companies with only the intention to merge with operating companies, helping them to go public bypassing the traditional and time-consuming initial public offering (IPO). SPACs became very popular in recent years due to their demand and some are even raising hundreds of millions of dollars.
However, it is not clear with which SPAC eToro is considering a merger.
Though eToro never confirmed any intentions of a public listing, the media reports have created a massive demand for its shares among private investors. Though the broker was officially valued at $800 million in its last funding round, a private sale of at least $50 million worth of eToro shares was reportedly sealed last year at a valuation of $2.5 billion.
If eToro truly manages to gain a valuation of $10 billion, it will become one of the largest publicly-traded Israeli fintech companies.