Brazil’s XP chooses a road often travelled: selling to Itaú

Brazilian brokerage firm XP Holding Investimentos has pulled its IPO in favour of selling a large minority stake to Itaú.

The announcement came just days after XP had filed for an IPO that was expected to raise between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.

The São Paulo-based brokerage had hired JPMorgan, Banco do Brasil, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bradesco, BTG Pactual, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Safra to lead the primary equity offering.

Speaking to Euromoney in New York, one of the bankers working on the deal says its cancellation was a loss to the nascent recovery in the Brazilian equity markets.