Shares of Uruguay’s first tech unicorn, Dlocal, jumped the most in two years on Wednesday after the company named e-commerce veteran Pedro Arnt as its co-chief executive officer in its latest management overhaul after an attack from a short seller and a probe in Argentina hurt the stock.
(Bloomberg) — Shares of Uruguay’s first tech unicorn, Dlocal, jumped the most in two years on Wednesday after the company named e-commerce veteran Pedro Arnt as its co-chief executive officer in its latest management overhaul after an attack from a short seller and a probe in Argentina hurt the stock.
Arnt, who left the post of chief financial officer of e-commerce giant MercadoLibre Inc. last week after almost a quarter century at one the region’s most valuable publicly-traded firms, will serve along chief executive office Sebastian Kanovich, the company said in a statement.
In an interview following the earnings statement, Arnt said he will focus on expanding Dlocal’s payments platform to keep pace with its business clients in emerging markets, shrugging off the idea that the company needs a major revamp.
“I’ve seen scale and built scale like few others in the region and that is primarily what I hope to bring to Dlocal,” he said. “There is no need for a turn-around of a business. If anything, I’d say there is fine-tuning to be done.”
Dlocal’s US-listed shares surged 45% to $22.44 at 10:26 a.m. in New York. They had risen as much as 49% earlier, the biggest intraday gain since June 2021. The stock had already rallied earlier this week after Bloomberg News reported that the company was exploring a sale. Co-founder Sergio Fogel declined to comment on what he described as “rumors.”
The company, which provides payments services for businesses in dozens of emerging markets, has sought to bolster its management team in recent months amid a slide in its stock price. In June, it appointed Fogel as co-president and chief strategy officer. Arnt said he doesn’t expect further management changes in the near future.
“As an early employee of one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies, we think his professional endorsement will surface the value DLO brings to merchants,” James Friedman, an analyst at Susquehanna, wrote of Arnt’s hiring. He has the equivalent of a buy rating on the shares.
Dlocal reported second quarter earnings of 15 cents a share Tuesday, above analyst estimates of 13 cents. The company also posted net income of $44.7 million, ahead of the average estimate of $40.1 million.
Read more: Dlocal Soars Most Since 2021 on Strong Results
The company was briefly worth more than $20 billion less than three months after it listed on Nasdaq in June 2021. However, its market capitalization had shrunk to less than $3 billion by November 2022 amid a broad selloff in tech shares and fraud accusations by short seller Muddy Waters. Wednesday’s rally brought the market value to more than $6 billion.
This year, Dlocal also faced an investigation of its operations by the Argentine government. Dlocal said in June that it would invest $100 million in Argentina following a “constructive engagement” with federal government authorities.
–With assistance from Vinícius Andrade and Joel Leon.
(Adds latest movements in share price in fifth paragraph. An earlier version of this story corrected the fourth paragraph to clarify Fogel joined in June.)
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