By Peter Frontini
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian holding company Itausa SA on Monday posted a 53% jump in its fourth-quarter recurring profit, mainly helped by gains with lender Itau Unibanco Holding SA and broker XP Inc, it said in a filing.
The company reported recurring net income, which excludes one-off items, of 4.185 billion reais ($802.51 million) in the last quarter of 2021. Net profit was 4.117 billion reais, 12% above the same period from 2020.
The performance was “driven mainly by the better results at Itau Unibanco, as a result of the growth in its loan book”, said Itausa in a securities filing.
Recurring results attributed to Itausa’s stakes in the financial sector were 2.725 billion reais, rising 15% year-on-year. Last week, both Itau and XP Inc reported a surge in fourth quarter profit.
Although representing a smaller part of Itausa’s results, the company’s non-financial sector investments, which includes stakes in shoemaker Alpargatas and wood panels manufacturer Dexco SA, also showed an significant improvement.
They were responsible for 859 million reais in the fourth quarter recurring income, a 55% jump on an annual basis.
Itausa’s net asset value declined 21% to 100.4 billion reais from the previous year, while its holding discount reached 21.5% at the end of 2021, down 1.2 percentage point from the previous year.
The company’s management believes that “the current discount level is exaggerated and does not reflect the appropriate level of the indicator,” it said.
($1 = 5.2149 reais)
(Reporting by Peter Frontini; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)
