Updates with details from interview, analysts in paragraphs 7-9, 11-12, updates after-hours trading in paragraph 4

By Sarah Morland

Feb 27 (Reuters) - Uruguayan fintech dLocal DLO.O on Thursday posted a fourth-quarter net profit up 4% but well below analysts' estimates, causing the shares to tumble in after-hours trading.

Profits were up 4% from a year earlier to $29.7 million, thanks partly to stronger payment volumes in Egypt, but still well below the $44.7 million estimate of analysts polled by LSEG.

Revenues for the payments provider, which operates across some 42 markets in Africa, Asia and Latin America, landed at $204.5 million, up 9% and broadly in line with the $206 million forecast.

Shares sank close to 18% in after-hours trading following the publication.

While results rose less than anticipated by analysts, its 2024 total payments volume landed well within dLocal's own target range issued in August last year.

The company said the results showed progress in an investment cycle that aims to continue scaling up the business.

"We have been in a phase where top-line growth has been outpacing bottom-line growth by design," CEO Pedro Arnst told Reuters in an interview, saying the company was focusing on investing in expanding its presence in existing markets.

He said the company plans to keep spending at a similar pace as previous years, investing in product and technology, innovation and research, licensing and regulatory compliance.

The firm had no plans to expand into new markets though it would consider this at the request of a major client, he added.

For 2025, the company predicted a total payments volume - the sum of its transactions - up 35% to 45%, bringing revenues up some 25% to 35% and its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) up 20% to 30%.

Regarding the threat of U.S. tariffs across many regions and markets, Arnst said more complex trade routes between the United States, China and the European Union could potentially boost dLocal by prompting firms there to turn to emerging markets.

Analysts at J.P. Morgan said in a note they considered dLocal's guidance conservative, and despite the profit miss continued to have a positive outlook for the firm going into 2025.

DLocal launched in 2016 and quickly became Uruguay's first unicorn, or a private start-up valued at over $1 billion. Five years later, it listed in New York at a value of some $9.5 billion, though this has since dipped to around $4 billion.

(Reporting by Sarah Morland in Mexico City; Editing by Kylie Madry and Daniel Wallis)

((sarah.morland@thomsonreuters.com;))