Square: Twitter CEO's mobile payments company to list on NYSE

Mobile payments company Square has filed documents for an initial public offering (IPO) in New York on 14 October (Wednesday). It would offer up to $275m (£177.8m, €240.3m) in stock, a figure that could change leading up to the IPO, according to its regulatory filing. It will use the symbol "SQ" on the NYSE.

Square said that its revenues were up 54% in 2014 at $850.2m and that it is on track to exceed the $1bn mark this year. However, its losses have grown proportionately at $154.1m in 2014 compared to $104.5m in the previous year.

Square's co-founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey, is also the co-founder of social media company Twitter where he was reinstated as CEO in early October. Dorsey is the largest shareholder in Square, owning 24.4%, followed by Khosla Ventures that owns 17.3%. Other investors include JP Morgan that has an ownership of 5.5%, Sequoia Capital and Rizvi Traverse, each owning 5.4% equity.

JP Morgan and Rizvi Traverse paid $15.46 a share in exchange for the equity and required that an IPO be priced at $18.56 a share or higher, failing which they would be entitled to receive additional common shares, according to the filing. Also, in the event of a company sale, these firms would be entitled to get their money back before any other investor. An $18.56 a share IPO price would give Square a pre-IPO valuation of $7.4bn including stock awards.

The company that pioneered the use of instant payments through smartphones was formed in 2009 and has raised about $600m in funding from Silicon Valley investors till date. "We've built one of the fairest and most efficient payments businesses in the world," Dorsey said, in a letter attached to the filing for the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Goldman Sachs & Co, Morgan Stanley, Barclays and Jefferies are among the underwriters for the offering, the company said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Earlier this week another payments processing company, Worldpay listed on the London Stock Exchange at an enterprise value of £5bn.