Bloomberg Línea — Nu Holdings, parent company of Nubank, filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the US, with a simultaneous listing in Brazil through BDRs (foreign stock receipts). The filing has been a long time coming and the IPO itself, which should take place later this year, is happening despite the Brazilian market is being kind of rocky.
The request, however, has a confidentiality clause, which restricts public access to information related to the offer and the company’s business. The company chose to list the shares on NYSE, (New York stock Exchange) after competing with Nasdaq, according to sources close to the deal but who asked not to be identified.
The IPO is expected to move more than $2 billion and the company may reach the market with a market value of more than $50 billion, higher than that of the big Brazilian banks. When mega-investor Warren Buffett, of Berkshire Hathaway, made a US$500 million investment in the company this year, Nubank had already been valued at $30 billion.
Only foreign banks, including Citi, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley, are working on the offering, which is unusual for Brazilian companies, according to market sources with knowledge of the case.
Nu Holding has applied to the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) for a listing of Class A common shares in the USA. In Brazil, part of these shares will be grouped in the form of BDRs sponsored by the company, with trading on the B3. The process had already been going on for a few days at the SEC, but became public on Wednesday due to the process involving BDRs and the Brazilian regulators, the sources said.
There is no information yet on the number of shares that will be sold, nor the proposed price range for the offering, which would allow us to estimate the value of the company and the targeted fundraising. “The initial public offering is expected to commence after the SEC and CVM complete their respective review processes, subject to market and other conditions,” the company said in a statement.
Last month, Nubank reported its first profit since launching eight years ago. The fintech, which started as a card issuer, had a net income of R$76 million in the first half of the year in Brazil. At the time, Nubank attributed the positive result to the growth in financial intermediation revenues, which totaled R$4 billion in the first half, 92% higher than in the same period of the previous year. The figures presented referred only to operations in Brazil, concentrated in Nu Pagamentos S.A. and its subsidiaries.
In that disclosure, Nubank also highlighted that it ended June with more than 41 million clients, a 25% growth in relation to the previous semester and 60% in the last 12 months. The company also reported that customers handled R$92 billion in transactions in the period, up 105% compared to the same period last year.