Swedish online payments firm Klarna, which is mostly known for its “buy now, pay later” scheme, reported a ballooning net loss in the first half of 2020.
The Stockholm-based company’s interim first-half report showed a net loss of 522 million Swedish krona ($59.8 million) between January and June, a sevenfold increase from the net loss of 73 million krona it posted in the same period last year, according to CNBC.
A regulated bank, Klarna is mostly known for its “buy now, pay later” scheme that offers shoppers interest-free financing on retail purchases over a period of installments. Klarna pays a merchant once a customer buys something using its platform, while that user is then invoiced over installments.
Credit losses — incurred when a customer doesn’t pay back a loan —almost doubled to around 1.2 billion krona, a figure the group said was adjusted for “macroeconomic uncertainty.” However, Klarna insisted the firm’s balance sheet was “strong” and overall losses accounted for only 0.6% of entire sales volume.
The company has been expanding aggressively overseas, particularly in the U.S. market where it claims to have added another 1 million customers in the last three months. Klarna says that new customers affect its net credit losses.
Total net operating income came in at 4.6 billion krona, which represented a rise of 37% from 3.3 billion krona in the first half of 2019. The company said its gross merchandise volume — the total sales made through its platform — was 215 billion krona in the January-June period, up 44% year-on-year.
“In the context of Covid-19 and the uncertainties it has unfortunately created for so many, a somewhat precautionary approach was necessary at times, including adjusting our credit policies globally,” Klarna co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said in a letter to shareholders. “Despite this, we have seen accelerated growth and rapidly increasing demand for our services.”
It comes after the firm earlier this year reported its first-ever annual loss since operations began in 2005.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
