AADI CAPITALEQUITY RESEARCH
NYSE: KLAR

Klarna Group plc

A busted IPO with the jaws opening

Price $13.83
Data as of 15 September 2026
Rebuilt from primary sources on each publish
Klarna came to market at $40 and trades at $13.83, about 1.3x this year's revenue and 3.2x transaction margin dollars. The price says payments processor with a credit problem. The last two quarters say something else: adjusted operating income of $160m in the first half of 2026 against $32m a year earlier, transaction margin back to 1.22% of volume from a 0.86% trough, and costs growing at a fraction of revenue after headcount fell by a third. The view here is that Fair Financing, the interest-bearing instalment product, goes from 9% of volume to 24% by FY2030, taking financing revenue to roughly a third of the total, and the model gets to $19.69 a share on that base case, inside the FY2026 guide in year one. What it needs is US credit to keep seasoning the right way (financing delinquency 3.0% against 3.5% at the peak) and Europe, four-fifths of volume, not to roll over. Management has already cut Germany once.
$13.83
Traded price
IPO at $40.00, Sep 2025
$19.69
Three-method value
+42% versus market
9%
Fair Financing share of GMV
FY2025; 24% by FY2030E in the base case
$160m
H1 2026 adj. operating income
from $32m in H1 2025
1.22%
TMD / GMV, latest quarter
trough 0.86% in Q3 2025
3.0%
US financing 30+ DPD
peak 3.5% in 2025
01

Translation and the guided metric

A dollar reporter with most of its volume in euros, sterling and kronor. Beside it, the single number management guides to and the one this page is built around.

Currency strength versus the US dollar

Indexed to 100 two years ago. Roughly 80% of GMV is earned outside the US

Month-end spot rates, inverted and rebased so a rising line means a stronger local currency and flattered dollar results. Management cut FY2026 GMV guidance partly for currency. Source: Yahoo Finance.

Transaction margin dollars as a share of GMV

Revenue less processing, credit losses and funding. The number the company guides to

Company disclosure, Q2 2026 6-K Exhibit 99.5. The US line collapsed through 2025 as Fair Financing vintages were young and unseasoned, then recovered as they matured. Group TMD/GMV back at Q1 2024 levels with far more US in the mix is the bull case in one line.
02

Volume mix and credit

Fair Financing is the growth product and the loss product. It carries interest, it carries a US book that loses four times what Europe does, and it is the reason the US margin line moved the way it did.

GMV by product

US$ billions per quarter. Fair Financing is the interest-bearing, higher-loss, higher-margin product

Fair Financing GMV went from $1.1bn to $4.7bn a quarter in ten quarters, from 5% to 13% of volume. Pay in Full is shrinking with the exit from Klarna Checkout. Source: company disclosure.

Provision for credit losses as a share of GMV

The US book loses roughly four times more per dollar of volume than Europe

Company disclosure. US cumulative net charge-offs on financing vintages plateau at 3.5-4.1% versus ~1.3% ex-US. US losses peaked in Q3-Q4 2025 as the Fair Financing ramp seasoned; the Q1 2026 drop is the first sign of underwriting improving with scale.
03

Operating leverage

This is the thesis. Revenue and margin dollars compounding while adjusted costs barely move. The question is whether the gap holds when volume growth slows, which management has just told you it will.

Operating leverage: growth in revenue, margin dollars and costs

Indexed to Q1 2024 = 100. The jaws opened in 2026

Adjusted opex excludes D&A, share-based payments and restructuring, per the company's definition. Headcount fell from 4,352 to 2,831 over FY2023-FY2025 while GMV grew 38%.

Adjusted operating income by quarter

US$ millions, label is margin on revenue. H1 2026: $159m against $32m a year earlier

Company definition: operating profit before D&A, share-based payments, severance and IPO costs. Q3 2025 was the IPO quarter and the trough of US credit losses.
04

The model: FY2026 to FY2030

Base case is inside the FY2026 guide (TMD $1,643m against $1,620-1,650m guided) and reaches a 16% adjusted margin by FY2030. The thesis driver is Fair Financing share of volume; interest income, the held book, credit losses and funding are all set consistent with it, so the credit business is modelled with its costs, not just its revenue.

The base case, FY2023 to FY2030

US$ millions. Solid bars actual, muted bars modelled

FY2026E revenue $4,143m and TMD $1,643m against guidance of $4,080-4,160m and $1,620-1,650m. Adjusted operating income compounds at ~70% a year off a small base. Source: Aadi institutional model.

Model summary

Actuals from the 20-F and 6-Ks, FY2026E onward from the base-case drivers

Adjusted EPS is adjusted operating income less tax at the driver rate, per share; it strips share-based pay, D&A and restructuring. Reported EPS is what the exit multiple is applied to.
05

Revenue mix and operating leverage

Two views of the same forecast: what the revenue is made of, and how much of it reaches operating income as costs grow slower than the top line.

Revenue mix

Share of total revenue. Interest and gain on sale are the credit business; muted bars are your estimates

Fair Financing goes from 9% of GMV in FY2025 to 24% by FY2030 in the base case. Credit income (interest plus gain on sale) follows it: 29% of revenue in FY2025, 39% by FY2030. Receivables, credit losses and funding are set consistent with that mix.

Operating leverage, FY2023 to FY2030

Indexed to FY2023 = 100. Solid is reported, dotted is the model

By FY2030 revenue is 318 and margin dollars 295 against adjusted opex at 179, all on FY2023 = 100. The gap between the top two lines and the bottom one is the whole earnings story; it opened in 2026 and the model assumes it keeps opening.
06

Unit economics and the franchise

What the model tracks underneath the P&L: every line as a share of volume, and the engines that move it. Revenue outgrows GMV because of take rate; margin dollars outgrow revenue because credit and funding costs fall per unit of volume.

Unit economics per $100 of GMV

The P&L as a stack of take rates; the gap between the bottom two lines is the operating leverage

Transaction costs are processing, credit losses and funding. Adjusted opex is a percentage of revenue in the model, shown here converted to GMV terms. Every $0.10 on the margin line is worth ~$150m of FY2026 operating income.

The franchise, indexed to FY2023 = 100

Volume outgrows consumers, revenue outgrows volume, margin dollars catch up

Consumers 84m to 151m; GMV per consumer and take rate do the rest. Employees 4,352 to 2,300; revenue per employee $1.24m in FY2025 to $3.15m by FY2030. Source: company filings and Aadi model.
07

Capital and productivity

Klarna funds receivables with retail deposits under a Swedish banking licence and is now selling receivables forward. The book grows far slower than volume, which is what lets earnings reach the equity holder rather than the balance sheet. Beside it, the cost side of the thesis in one number.

Receivables and the deposits that fund them

US$ billions. The bank inside the payments company

Receivables fall from 8.8% of GMV in FY2025 to 10.5% by FY2030 as forward-flow sales ramp, so the book grows far slower than volume. Tangible book per share $4.36 to $9.79. Deposits at ~115% of receivables throughout.

Revenue per employee

US$ millions. Headcount is an input in the forecast, not a driver

Employees 4,352 (FY2023) to 2,831 (FY2025), modelled to 2,300 by FY2030. The company said it would keep falling. If this line flattens while revenue keeps growing, the operating-leverage thesis is intact; if headcount turns up, it is not.
08

Valuation

Every route lands above the price; the bear does not. Value is a FCFE DCF with exit P/E and TMD-multiple cross-checks, rolled to the pricing date.

Value per share: exit multiple against cost of equity

Exit P/E on FY2030E earnings. Shares trade at $13.83

FCFE for FY2026E-FY2030E plus a terminal on FY2030E net income, discounted and rolled to the pricing date. Every cell sits above the traded price; the model's base case is what is in question, not the arithmetic.

Value per share by method and scenario

Probability-weighted $21.97 against $13.83 traded

Bear 30%, base 45%, bull 25%. Skew on twelve-month targets 2.8x. The bear is floored at tangible book: a network with 120 million consumers and a bank licence gets bought or restructured, not zeroed.
09

Returns

What the position earns to FY2028 and FY2030 across exit multiples, on reported and on adjusted earnings, and what earnings look like if the drivers are wrong in either direction.

IRR by exit multiple, base case

Exit at FY2028E (3-year) or FY2030E (5-year) earnings times the multiple, from today's price

Reported EPS carries share-based pay and an abnormal tax rate through FY2028; adjusted EPS is what the market is likely to capitalise while those normalise. At 18x, the two differ by roughly fifteen points of IRR. Source: Aadi model, Returns sheet.

Earnings per share by scenario

Bear, base and bull are separate driver sets, snapshotted from the model

FY2026E TMD: bear $1,230m, base $1,643m, bull $1,923m. Weights 30% / 45% / 25%. The bear loses money through FY2030: European volume at 5%, credit at 0.6% of GMV, no operating leverage. That is the FY2023-FY2025 company again, priced accordingly.
10

What would change the view

The five things worth watching, in the order they would move the estimate.

Fair Financing keeps taking share of volume, at a stable loss rate on the book
Fair Financing was 9% of GMV in FY2025 and 13% in Q2 2026; the base case needs 24% by FY2030 with credit losses staying near 7% of the average book. Watch the FF share in the quarterly GMV table and the US financing charge-off vintages together; one without the other is the wrong outcome.
Transaction margin holds above the FY2026 guide of 1.09% of GMV
Latest quarter 1.22%. The model has this rising to 1.39% by FY2030. If it stalls at the guide, FY2030 adjusted operating income is roughly a quarter lower. This is the whole argument.
US financing delinquency keeps falling as vintages season
30+ DPD at 3.0%, down from 3.5%. US GMV is growing 30%+ and is now over a fifth of the group. Cumulative net charge-offs on US financing plateau at 3.5-4.1%; that number has to come down, not just stabilise.
European volume does not roll over
Management cut H2 2026 European volume, citing Germany, its largest market. Roughly 80% of GMV is ex-US. The US cannot carry the group if Europe is flat; the Bear case is Europe at 5% growth.
Adjusted costs keep growing at half the rate of revenue
Headcount 2,831 at year-end 2025 from 4,352 two years earlier. Management says it keeps falling. If the AI-productivity story is real, FY2030 adjusted margin near 18% is conservative; if it is done, the jaws close.
The asset-light shift does not hollow out revenue
Gain on sale of receivables was $69m last quarter, up from nothing a year earlier, while interest income flattened at $266m. Selling receivables releases capital and lowers funding cost but swaps a recurring interest stream for an upfront gain. Take rate guidance now comes with and without it; watch the without.