By Supantha Mukherjee
STOCKHOLM, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Klarna, the Swedish "buy now, pay later" services provider and online bank, cut its full-year volume and revenue forecast on Tuesday, citing conditions in Germany, its largest market, sending its shares down 17% in premarket trading.
The guidance overshadowed its surprise second-quarter profit, while analysts had expected a net loss, helped by growth in its U.S. markets.
The company now expects its full-year gross merchandise volume (GMV), a metric
for measuring sales, to be between $149 billion and $151 billion, compared with its earlier forecast of greater than $155 billion.
Klarna expects its full-year revenue to be between $4.08 billion and $4.16 billion, a fall from its prior expectation of $4.34 billion. Analysts had expected $4.42 billion.
German retail sales grew less than 1% in real terms in the first half, consistent with conditions reported across the country's retail sector this season. Klarna's forecast assumes Germany stays soft through the second half rather than recovering.
A German survey of 600 retail companies last month found that 42% rated their current business situation as poor, while nearly two-thirds said conditions had deteriorated in the first half of the year compared with the same period in 2025.
Klarna said its quarterly net profit was $9 million compared with a loss of $53 million in the year-earlier period, ahead of expectations of a loss of $17.4 million. Adjusted operating income was $91 million versus $29 million a year ago, it added.
Klarna's April-June revenue grew 27% to $1.04 billion, beating expectations of $993.8 million.
GMV rose 18% to $36.6 billion in the quarter. GMV in the United States rose 27%.
(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm, editing by Terje Solsvik)
