XP loses US$ 1 billion on the US Stock Exchange

A day after XP Investimentos released its balance sheet for the first quarter of 2022, the Brazilian giant felt the dissatisfaction of investors on the Nasdaq technology exchange. After losing 15% in the morning, the shares closed down almost 7.5%.

Just last Wednesday (4), the loss in market value was US$ 985.6 million. In one year, XP’s decline in the New York trading session exceeds 40%.

According to analysts interviewed by the Estadão/Broadcastthe poor performance of the shares was motivated less by the results and more by the uncertainty of the sale of the stake of Itaú and Itaúsa in the company.

XP closed the first quarter with a net profit of BRL 987 million, the first quarterly result below BRL 1 billion since the beginning of 2021.

XP’s partner and financial director, Bruno Constantino, commented that the beginning of the year was challenging both due to the impact of the Ômicron variant on the economy and the beginning of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

These factors fueled volatility in the market, especially in the stock market, which concentrates most of XP’s revenues.

The American bank JPMorgan pointed out in a report that XP presented a “timid” result in the first quarter of this year, with reduced yields.

According to the institution, this scenario, combined with the “endless” sales of Itaúsa shares and, soon, Itaú, was enough for the shares to collapse yesterday.

Pressure

JP Morgan analysts — Domingos Falavina, Kenneth B. Worthington, Guilherme Grespan, Yuri R. Fernandes and Marlon Medina — stated that, although XP managed to deal relatively well with market volatility, the number of Itaúsa shares represents a extra pressure generated by its excessive volume.

Last Friday, Itaú announced that it had acquired, for approximately R$8 billion, an 11.36% stake in XP. Although the transaction was foreseen in the original investment agreement in 2017 — and Itaú has already signaled that it does not intend to keep the shares — the market was ready to sever the relationship with the bank.

Until the beginning of last year, Itaú held a 46% stake in XP. First, it sold 5% on the market. To stop being a partner in the investment firm, he spun off the remaining 41% into a new company.

After that, the shares ended up being distributed, proportionally, to its shareholders, with the largest share going to the holding company Itaúsa, which controls the bank, with around 19%.

This year, Itaúsa also sold part of its position and has already pocketed R$ 1.8 billion, currently holding approximately 11%.

In view of this new purchase, UBS BB mentioned the possibility of XP organizing the repurchase of some of the shares held by Itaúsa and Itaú, alleviating this condition.

In a conference call with analysts and investors, XP signaled this intention and that it would have started talks with the bank.

Analysts at Credit Suisse point out that, although XP executives pointed to a market recovery in March as an indicator of improvement, the scenario remains challenging and risks remain for the company.

The information is from the newspaper. The State of São Paulo.