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Santander may take Brazilian payments firm Getnet private

FILE PHOTO: Santander bank branch in Guernica

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Spain's Banco Santander SA may take Brazilian payments company Getnet private seven months after the subsidiary made its trading debut on the Sao Paulo stock exchange, a securities filing showed late on Thursday.

Getnet, a direct subsidiary of Santander's PagoNxt Merchant Solutions, said its controlling shareholder intends to purchase all of the outstanding shares in the company and take it private.

The move would apply to shares and units listed in Brazil and to American Depositary Shares (ADSs) traded on the Nasdaq, Getnet said, without specifying the reasons for it.

The company, formally known as Getnet Adquirencia e Servicos para Meios de Pagamento SA, made its trading debut in October 2021 with a market value of 7.3 billion reais.

Getnet said its controlling shareholder will offer 2.36 reais per common or preferred share and 4.72 reais per unit to purchase the outstanding stocks, implying a 29.3% premium over Thursday's closing price of 3.65 reais per unit.

Units in Getnet were up 23% at 4.50 reais on Friday, reaching their highest level since late October but still sharply down from their trading debut.

"Getnet's depressed valuation and a small free-float were causing liquidity issues. Furthermore ... it has failed to accomplish the initial goal of the spin-off, i.e. trading at higher multiples and unlocking value for the group," analysts at Citi said.

Rodrigo Crespi, an analyst at Guide Investimentos, said that Getnet's short time as a publicly traded company may bring some reservations about its future, but noted that Santander's bid gives shareholders a significant upside.

(Reporting by Andre Romani; Additional reporting and writing by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Paul Simao and Chizu Nomiyama)