SAO PAULO • Brazilian payments firm Conductor has hired banks for an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States that could come as early as this year, as Latin America's financial sector is enlivened by the arrival of several newcomers, three sources familiar with the matter said.
Conductor, backed by venture capital firm Riverwood Capital and payments processor Visa, is a provider of technology for financial services. Its tools allow retailers, banks and financial start-ups to offer credit cards and payment wallets to their clients, for instance.
Investment banking units of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America and Credit Suisse will manage the offering, the sources added. None of those banks immediately commented on the matter.
Should Conductor conclude a listing on a US exchange, it will follow in the footsteps of two other Brazilian payments companies, StoneCo and PagSeguro Digital.
The sources did not say which US exchange Conductor was likely to pick for the listing, how much money it would seek to raise, or what valuation it hoped for.
Conductor has 95 million users and processes US$20 billion (S$27 billion) in payments transactions per year in Latin America, according to the company's website.
Last year, Conductor started to expand across Latin America to countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.
The share offering will mainly be new stock as the firm plans to raise proceeds to fund its expansion to new countries, launch products and engage in mergers and acquisitions, one of the sources added.
The company last year raised roughly US$170 million in two tranches with investors such as Singapore's Temasek Holdings, Viking Global Investors and Sunley House, an affiliate of Advent International, aiming at entering new countries.
Conductor chief executive Antonio Soares told Reuters last October that the company is poised for rapid growth in the region, as much of Latin America's population does not have a bank account, creating opportunities for non-traditional finance firms.
Regulators in the region, such as Brazil's central bank, are also encouraging more competition for financial services and products.
Temasek is also involved in a separate announcement by Canadian investment firm Brookfield Asset Management on Tuesday on the raising of US$7 billion for the first close of its fund that invests in renewable power companies and businesses that aim to achieve carbon neutrality.
The Brookfield Global Transition Fund, which has a target of US$12.5 billion, secured commitments from two of its anchor investors: Canada's Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board and Temasek Holdings. Other fund investors include the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario and Canada's PSP Investments.
Brookfield said its new fund, possibly the largest energy asset vehicle to date, will enable it to pursue large-scale "decarbonisation-driven investment opportunities".
"Brookfield is committed to achieving net-zero by 2050 or sooner, and to accelerating the global net-zero transition," Mr Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England and head of transition investing at Brookfield, said in a statement.
REUTERS
