Compass has reopened its IPOs on the B3 stock exchange. But will the queue move forward?

After four years and five months, the B3 stock exchange bell rang again to announce an initial public offering (IPO). This Monday, May 11th, Compass, a gas company controlled by Cosan, made its debut on the stock exchange, with the ticker PASS3, but the market message is that it won't be so easy to reopen this avenue with good opportunities.

In the first trading session, the company's stock traded lower for almost the entire day, except for a few minutes when it rose by almost 1%. Around 4:30 PM, the shares were trading at R$ 27.20, 2.9% below the initial price of R$ 28.

At the end of the day, the company registered a devaluation of 2.18%, closing at R$ 27.39 per share. The drop was greater than the Bovespa Index, which ended the trading session with a decline of 1.19%.

The final volume of shares traded exceeded 10.2 million. The initial price had already been set at the bottom of the indicative range, between R$ 28 and R$ 35 per share.

According to analyst Caio Borges of Eleven Financial, the Brazilian stock market is still concerned about the recovery, and now it's necessary to understand the convergence between the price at which the controlling company is willing to sell and how much the market is willing to pay.

“We still see investors cautious about the stock market, mainly because fixed income, with interest rates at current levels, has proven to be a strong competitor for investor capital,” says Borges.

"Added to this is the outflow of foreign capital from the country observed in recent weeks, a factor that may also have put pressure on the company in today's trading session," he added.

In any case, according to the analyst, the trend is for the curve to reverse over time, and for the infrastructure company's stock to become part of portfolio recommendations.

“The arrival of a new stock on the stock exchange is always welcome for investors, as it broadens the range of options for capital allocation. We believe that, over the next few years, the company should consolidate itself as a good dividend payer, given the predictability of its operations,” says the Eleven analyst.

The key point, according to Borges, is related to a possible "conflict" between what is best for the company, which still needs to make investments to expand its coverage area, and what is best for Cosan, which should continue firmly on the path to deleveraging.

According to João Neves, an analyst at EQI Research, Compass's IPO can be viewed from two distinct perspectives: the first is that it is, in fact, a clear sign of market reopening. On the other hand, it does not necessarily represent a broad normalization of the offering market.

"Despite the Ibovespa being close to its historical highs and having shown strong performance over the last 12 months, this movement has still been largely concentrated in companies with greater market capitalization and higher liquidity," says Neves.

"Smaller companies, which typically make up a significant portion of the potential IPO pipeline, are still trading at multiples significantly below their historical levels, which tends to make new offerings more difficult under conditions attractive to selling shareholders," he added.

This was not the first time that the holding company controlled by Rubens Ometto had tried to take Compass public. In 2020, shortly after its creation, the company attempted its initial public offering, but withdrew due to unfavorable market conditions at the time.

The company will release its financial results for the first quarter of this year next Wednesday, May 13, after the market closes. The conference call with company executives will be the following day, the 14th.

In 2025, Compass achieved net revenue of R$ 16.6 billion, a 10% decrease compared to the previous year. Net profit, at R$ 1.46 billion, was 31% lower than that reported in 2024.

The concept for Compass arose from Cosan's acquisition of 60.05% of the share capital of Companhia de Gás de São Paulo (Comgás) in 2012. The transaction was part of a strategy to diversify the holding company's portfolio, expanding its exposure to the infrastructure and energy sector.

In 2017, Cosan acquired an additional 16.77% stake in Comgás, previously held by Shell. This move was completed in 2019 through a public offering of shares (OPA), which resulted in Comgás being taken private.

With this, Cosan came to own 99.14% of the company. Then, in 2020, Cosan created Compass, with the objective of concentrating the holding company's investments in the Brazilian gas market on a single platform.