Santander’s Brazilian listing gets off to a lacklustre start
BRAZIL’S biggest ever initial public offering (IPO) kicked off with a whimper instead of a bang as shares of the Brazilian unit of Spanish bank Santander edged lower during their trading debut.
Executives of Santander Brasil sought to focus on the fact that it raised 14.1 billion reais (£5.06bn) with its IPO in Sao Paulo and New York, the largest ever in Brazil and the biggest in the world since March 2008.
“The timing could not have been better,” said Fabio Barbosa, Santander’s chief executive for Brazil.
But the shares came under pressure because of both the size of the offering and the price, which put Santander Brasil’s valuation higher than some Brazilian rivals, traders said. The IPO will bring in €1.43bn of cash for the bank’s Spanish parent, headed by chief executive Alfredo Saenz, said in Madrid.
The IPO was the largest ever for a Brazilian company, dwarfing the offering by credit card processor VisaNet in June, and was the biggest in the world since Visa’s offering in March 2008.
The IPO also beat the offering by China State Construction Engineering, which raised $7.3bn in July this year.