BTG Trades Up Following IPO

In a widely anticipated trading debut, BTG Pactual shares rose Thursday, along with the Bovespa, supporting the bank’s decision to price the IPO Tuesday at the middle of its price range despite 3x demand. BTG priced 93.6m primary and 23.4m secondary units at BRL31.25 each, versus a BRL28.75-BRL33.75 range. The total includes a 15% greenshoe and about 75% of an 18m share hot issue option. The shares closed at BRL31.45 Thursday. Proceeds are going towards BTG’s expansion. BTG itself was global coordinator, with Bradesco, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Citi and Banco do Brasil as joint bookrunners, and Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and UBS as lead managers. With the Locamerica and Unicasa IPOs on either side of BTG pricing below their ranges, the BTG deal was not expected to have an immediate lifting effect on the Brazilian new issuance going forward.