Brazil education firm Vasta shares fall more than 10% after debut (updated)

Afya

31/07/2020 17:34

(Adds shares reverse course)
    July 31 (Reuters) - Shares of Vasta Platform  VSTA.O , a
unit of Brazilian for-profit education company Cogna Educacao SA
 COGN3.SA , reversed early gains to fall more than 10% after its
Nasdaq debut on Friday. 
    Vasta's shares opened at $22.10, but hit a low of $17.00 in
early trade.  
    The company sold more than 18 million shares at $19.00 per
share and raised $352.9 million, which it plans to use to mainly
repay part of the debt owed to Cogna and fund expansion.
    Vasta, which sells digital solutions for K-12 private
schools, had initially aimed to sell the shares at between
$15.50 and $17.50 per share.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2EU0EH  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2ED0VV  
    Vasta will join two other Brazilian education companies,
Arco Platform Ltd  ARCE.O  and Afya Ltd  AFYA.O  on the Nasdaq.
    Brazilian distance learning company Uniasselvi, which has
private equity firms Carlyle Group Inc  CG.O , Neuberger Berman
LLC and Vinci Partners as shareholders, is also working on an
IPO on the Nasdaq.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2E715Z

 (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Carolina
Mandl in Sao Paulo; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel)
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Outside U.S. +91 80 6182 2663 or +91 80 3796 2663 ;))