SAO PAULO, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Brazilian digital bank

PicPay will start hiring financial firms to carry out a planned

initial primary offering in New York next year, two people

familiar with the matter told Reuters.

It will be the second time PicPay, owned by the holding

group J&F, which also controls meatpacker JBS, aims

to list shares in the U.S. In 2021, the group made preparations

for a Nasdaq IPO, but it dropped that plan due to market

headwinds.

PicPay has not formally picked any investment banks for the

consortium, but it intends to hire Citigroup ( C/PN ) among others, as

the bank has been involved in its IPO talks since 2021, said the

sources, who requested anonymity to discuss confidential talks.

PicPay and Citigroup ( C/PN ) declined to comment on the matter.

As before, Picpay aims to list its shares with Nasdaq, which

for years has attracted tech sector IPOs with lower fees and

easier listing requirements.

PicPay has not settled on the size of the share sale, but

wants its IPO to be "only as big as necessary," according to one

of the people, who also cautioned that the timing and value may

vary with market conditions.

The fintech sees 2025 as a promising year for a New York IPO

in as the Federal Reserve has already began cutting rates and

the U.S. election will soon be in the rearview mirror.

More than raising fresh capital, the IPO is designed to

offer PicPay international visibility and access to a larger

pool of tech investors, the sources said. Funds raised from a

share sale would help to expand operations in Brazil, they said.

Headquartered in São Paulo, the firm was founded in 2012 and

acquired three years later by J&F, which also owns companies

ranging from wood pulp producers to energy firms and consumer

goods makers.

PicPay has grown fast in recent years as Brazil's central

bank has encouraged more competition in retail banking with new

technologies making it easier for challenger banks.

At the end of the second quarter, Picpay said its net income

for the first half of 2024 totaled 61.8 million reais ($11.3

million), nearly twice its net income in all of 2023.

($1 = 5.46 reais)