Digital Bank Nubank Scales Back IPO as SoftBank Set to Invest

01 Dec 2021, 02:21 AM IST

(Bloomberg) -- Nu Holdings, the Brazilian digital bank backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., trimmed the valuation of its initial public offering while also attracting the interest of SoftBank Group Corp.

Nubank cut the proposed price range to $8 to $9 per share from $10 to $11, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday. The company may be valued at as much as $41.7 billion and the deal could raise $2.5 billion at the mid-point of the range.

SoftBank Latin America Funds are among the investors willing to buy at least $1.3 billion in Nubank’s Class A shares at the offering price, according to the filing. The Japanese conglomerate passed up investing in Nubank during a 2019 fundrasing round that valued the digital bank at $10 billion. SoftBank instead became a key shareholder at one of Nubank’s top local rivals, Banco Inter.

Other existing Nubank investors, including Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management and Dragoneer Investment, joined SoftBank in saying they’d be willing buy the shares.

Nubank plans to list the Class A shares on the New York Stock Exchange while also having Brazilian depositary receipts trade on the Sao Paulo stock exchange. It initially targeted a valuation of as much as $50.6 billion, but given the recent rout in global technology stocks was considering downsizing the transaction, people with knowledge of the matter said Monday.