By Sarah Morland
(Reuters) – Uruguayan fintech dLocal on Thursday posted a fourth-quarter net profit up 4% but well below analysts’ estimates, causing the shares to tumble in after-hours trading.
Profits were up 4% from a year earlier to $29.7 million, thanks partly to stronger payment volumes in Egypt, but still well below the $44.7 million estimate of analysts polled by LSEG.
Revenues for the payments provider, which operates across some 42 markets in Africa, Asia and Latin America, landed at $204.5 million, up 9% and broadly in line with the $206 million forecast.
Shares sank close to 20% in after-hours trading following the publication.
While results rose less than anticipated by analysts, its 2024 total payments volume landed well within dLocal’s own target range issued in August last year.
For 2025, the company predicted a total payments volume – the sum of its transactions – up 35% to 45%, bringing revenues up some 25% to 35% and its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) up 20% to 30%.
“Looking ahead to 2025, we are confident in our ability to sustain momentum,” the company said in the earnings report. “Our investments in technology, product innovation and market expansion position us well for growth.”
The company said the results showed progress in an investment cycle that aims to continue scaling up the business.
DLocal launched in 2016 and quickly became Uruguay’s first unicorn, or a private start-up valued at over $1 billion. Five years later, it listed in New York at a value of some $9.5 billion, though this has since dipped to around $4 billion.
(Reporting by Sarah Morland in Mexico City; Editing by Kylie Madry and Daniel Wallis)
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