After 612% Rally, Locaweb Raises $435 Million in Share Sale

Vinícius Andrade, Cristiane Lucchesi and Rachel Gamarski

(Bloomberg) -- Brazilian web services provider Locaweb Servicos de Internet SA raised 2.35 billion reais ($435 million) in an equity offering.

Locaweb, which has seen its stock increase sevenfold since it went public about a year ago, sold a total of 78.2 million new shares at 30 reais apiece, including an additional allotment, the company said in a filing. Bloomberg News earlier reported on the price, which represented a 2.3% discount to Tuesday’s close.

Founding shareholders including Chairman Gilberto Mautner trimmed part of their current holdings with the sale of 13.6 million shares.

Shares fell 5% to 29.18 reais at 11:28 a.m. in Sao Paulo Wednesday, erasing gains from earlier this week.

Locaweb offers services from website hosting to cloud computing and emerged as one of the main winners from the pandemic in Latin America. Last year, the firm benefited from a rush in demand from small and mid-sized companies seeking to take their businesses digital.

The company will use proceeds from the primary offering to finance past acquisitions and potential new deals. Since September, the firm has announced six purchases.

Recent deals “have enlarged the Locaweb platform and increased its value offering to clients,” said Ignacio Arnau, a fund manager at Bestinver Asset Management in Madrid.

Shares of Locaweb had soared 612% since last year’s initial public offering through Tuesday, compared with a 3% gain for the benchmark Ibovespa index during the same period.

Banks running the deal were Banco Itau BBA SA, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, XP Inc. and Banco BTG Pactual SA.

(Updates with company confirmation and stock move.)

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