The actions of dLocal, the first unicorn of Uruguay, They collapsed 17.32% on Wall Street after the suspicions of alleged “fraud” indicated by the government of Argentina, from where they accused the financial technology company of “leaking” abroad by some 400 million dollars.
To the fall of the shares, which closed at $11.41, was added the drop in the stock market capitalization, which was close to 3,364 million dollars. The disgust for the Uruguayan firm is reminiscent of what happened in November, when Muddy Waters Capital launched a harsh report against dLocal and caused its shares to collapse to a point 51%
Some market operators even pointed out that the company operated some 7 million dollars, well above the usual level, which stands at about 1.3 million dollars daily. When trying to explain this situation, they analyzed that it could be a rescue to mitigate the collapse.
Why is Argentina accusing dLocal of alleged fraud?
from the government of Argentina pointed out that dLocal committed undue maneuvers in the market and made transfers abroad made with the purpose of “currency flight”. In the accusation, they considered that it works as a “mere instrument to take advantage of the exchange rate gap and take dollars abroad with operations that are not reflected in the accounting.”
The State of the neighboring country also argued that in its balance sheet “it practically does not have fixed assets and they only declare rents that would be from the operating address.” In addition, they warned that the fintech receives invoices from abroad from its parent company, issues B invoices to foreign clients to justify income and invoices companies of the same group, without liquidating foreign currency from this export of services.
Faced with the versions, the founder of fintech, Sergio Fogel, He came out to publicly refute the accusations and said that there is no open cause in this regard. However, Argentine Customs evaluates notifying the alleged fraud to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the regulator Wall St.
The unicorn came from a rebound in the first quarter
Last week, dLocal had shown signs of its rebound by presenting the financial results report for the first quarter of 2023, in which it recorded earnings of $35.5 millionnearly 83% more than during the previous period. It is that during the last quarter of 2022, the profits were of $19.4 million.
Meanwhile, if you look at the year-on-year comparison, the increase was of 35%reaching the $26.3 million. At the same time, the report showed that the gross profit between January and March of this year reached $61.8 millionwhich is equivalent to a 42% year-on-year increase.
Source: Ambito
