Brazil's StoneCo swings to profit on surging finance services

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian financial tech firm StoneCo on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter adjusted net profit of 234.8 million reais ($44.70 million), swinging back from a 32.5 million reais loss a year earlier.

The firm said its revenue grew 44.5% in the period to 2.706 billion reais, adding that the increase was mainly a result of an almost 50% leap in revenue from its financial services platform.

StoneCo has been expanding its financial business beyond the payments segment to offer banking services and has also undergone organizational changes, with new Chief Executive Pedro Zinner scheduled to take over at the end of March.

"The fourth quarter consolidated a major turnaround that our business had over 2022," StoneCo's Chief Strategy Officer Lia Matos told Reuters.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) meanwhile came in at 1.272 billion reais, an 85.8% increase year over year.

Adjusted EBITDA margin was up one percentage point from the previous quarter at 47%, "mainly due to efficiency gains in cost of services and selling expenses, despite overall higher general and administrative expenses in the quarter", the firm said.

($1 = 5.2532 reais)

(Reporting by Andre Romani; Writing by Peter Frontini; Editing by Anthony Esposito and Sarah Morland)