Brazilian billionaires look to Colombia

What’s good enough for Eike Batista, the world’s seventh richest man, is good enough for fellow Brazilian billionaire André Esteves.

Esteves’s BTG Pactual, Brazil’s only listed investment bank, on Thursday joined the investment rush into Colombia, Latin America’s second most populous country, with the $51.9m purchase of Bolsa Y Renta, the country’s biggest stock broker.
 
Batista, as part of his bid to knock Mexico’s Carlos Slim off his perch as the world’s richest man, has invested in Colombian oil, gold and coal. Most recently he announced he is looking to sell an equity stake in CCX Carvao da Colombia, the coal venture he spun off from power producer MPX Energia
 
Esteves, chief executive and majority shareholder of BTG Pactual, says the buyout of Bolsa y Renta will give greater reach into “a country that merits attention due to domestic consumption growth and numerous companies seeking capital expansion there”.
 
Bolsa y Renta has $2.57bn in its wealth management portfolio and $873.8m in asset management, while BTG Pactual has $71.5bn in asset management and $23.1bn in wealth management.
 
“We want to be the number one reference for investors and companies interested in Latin America,” said Esteves in a statement.
 
Esteves wants to turn the Brazilian investment bank into the biggest in emerging markets by the end of the decade. Itaú BBA, the investment banking unit of Itaú Unibanco holding, has started a wholesale banking unit in Bogota, Colombia’s capital, but the sector remains dominated by homegrown banks such as Bancolombia.

(Naomi Mapstone | ft.com)