Stone invests up to US$470 million in Bank Inter; shares may reach Nasdaq

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Bank Inter (BIDI11) and Stone (STNE) on Monday morning, May 24, announced an agreement that joins the two financial institutions. Stone will subscribe for up to R$2.5 billion (US$470 million) in common shares or units that will be issued in a follow-on offering of the digital bank, according to a notice sent to the market.

The investment will give Stone up to 4.99% of Inter’s capital, at a fixed price of R$57.84 per unit and R$19.28 per common share, considering the stock split announced last week. The price entails a 3% discount over the unit’s closing price last Friday, May 21.

The transaction unites two of the leading players in the race for innovation in Brazil’s financial sector: Stone in payment methods and Inter as a digital bank that bets on the one-stop-shop model through a financial services marketplace. On one side, Stone’s founding partners André Street and Eduardo Pontes; on the other, entrepreneur Rubens Menin and Inter’s CEO João Vitor Menin.

The agreement will also grant Stone, whose shares have been traded on Nasdaq since its IPO in October 2018, the right to refuse any proposal Inter may receive to sell control within a 6-year period. And it will be able to appoint 1 of the 9 members of the Minas Gerais bank’s board of directors.

Inter also notified the market that it is in its final stages of studying a corporate reorganization that may lead to the migration of its shareholders to a new company whose shares are expected to be listed on Nasdaq.

Synergies explored

The partnership between Stone and Inter Bank will transcend the corporate basis, according to the terms disclosed. It will strengthen cross-selling strategies (sales of products in other categories, such as credit) for both institutions’ clients.

One such example is the offer of a variety of financial services from InterShop to Stone’s corporate client base; another is to improve the mobile experience between Stone and Inter’s clients.

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