The Entrepreneur Fintech who waged war on the payment company of 10 billion pounds Sterling which he co-founded accused him of having “deceived” his own investors and warned that a decision to extend his current governance agreements could be derailed in court.
In a statement published in Sky News, Taavet Hinrikus’s investment vehicle, Skaala, said that Wise’s assertion that its proposals to extend its dual-class stock structure of a decade during the remuneration of its main list in the United States should have been updated thanks to an official scholarship.
Mr. Hinrikus is angry that the structure of the voting actions was wrapped in a broader vote on the move to the United States, which, according to him, is undemocratic and unfair for investors.
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“On July 21, Wise published an announcement on the market claiming that” three main independent proxy consulting companies – ISS, GLASS LEWIS and PIRT – came out unanimously in favor of the proposal and recommend the shareholders to vote for that “, said Skaala.
“This declaration then proved to be misleading.
“In reality, the PIRT report – published on July 15 – explicitly recommended shareholders vote against the program, citing serious concerns about governance.
“Investors are extremely influenced by the points of view of professional proxy advisers.
“Wise should have made a corrective announcement via RNS to update the market.
“Skaala immediately called for learning the problem, but Wise rather chose to calmly issue a declaration on its website on July 23, 2025 without any declaration that accompanies it to the market.”
This is the last salvo of a growing line between Skaala, which holds a little more than 5% of Wise’s actions, and the company – which continues to be managed by its co -founder, Kristo Kaarmann.
Glass Lewis and Iss have both changed their reports since the public disclosure of the dispute on Monday, although neither has changed their voting recommendations.
Mr. Hinrikus also said that Wise president David Wells had wrongly said that “Skaala’s call to separate the extension of double -class rights from the American list” distorts how an arrangement scheme works legally and in practice “.
He accused Mr. Wells of making allegations “legally and commercially unfounded”.
“Skaala has proposed several practical and legally viable options for Wise to respond to shareholders’ concerns,” he told Sky News on Thursday.
“These include offering two alternatives arrangement schemes – both facilitating the double American list, but offering shareholders the choice to approve it with or without the 10 -year extension of double -class voting rights.
“These alternatives have been clearly stated in Skaala’s correspondence with Wise and referenced in the Glass Lewis report declaration to its customers.
“Wise has so far rejected these proposals immediately.”
Skaala also said that there was “a substantial risk that the court (high) would refuse to sanction (proposals) during the sanctions hearing (the second quarter of 2026), taking into account the problems of procedure, equity and transparency surrounding the regime as presented”.
“In such a scenario, the double list would be considered materially – perhaps by months – and a significant cost and risk would be unnecessarily introduced.
“If wise only seeks to restructure the regime after a failure of judicial sanctions, any new regime would be confronted with additional delays and regulatory dismissals of lost risk or to be renovated.
“This entirely avoidable situation is the direct result of the insistence of the company to ensure an improvement in voting rights for CEO Kristo Kaarmann under the current proposal,” said Skaala.
The existing double class structure of Wise was implemented in 2021, when the company floated in London with a commitment it would return to a single class of shares five years after its start on the stock market.
In response, Wise said that PIRT’s recommendation to shareholders to vote in favor of the company’s plans was contained in a report which was submitted to it on July 10.
“We were informed (July 23) that the PIRC had made available reports to subscribers on July 15, 2025 which recommended against the proposal.
“Wise never received a copy of these reports and, as soon as we learned about the July 15 reports, we asked for pric copies.”
Wise’s shares, which have a market capitalization of 10.3 billion pounds sterling, have increased by more than a third in the past year.