Tupiwire: The Week That Was

The week that was in my private clipping file. In bold: Stuff I made some effort to follow up on in bold. Details on request.

AlphaVille Applies for Environmental License on New Developments
Swiss Re America Names Head of Local Office
Cosan Share Swap Delayed
New Industrial Policy Focuses on Alternative Energy
Banco do Brasil Will Inject R$2 Billion Into Home Loans
Banco do Nordeste Takes Microcredit National
Gen Re Reopens Brazil Office
“Minister Wants Brasiliana Sold”
Roll Royce Scouts São Paulo Turbine and Generator Parts Manufacturers
Rede D’Or Private Hospital Chain Offers 25% to Private Equity
Taxi Leader Wants to Buy Sênior Air Taxi
Gazeta Mercantil Creates RI Division
Klabin Plans News Expansion
ING Latin American Expansion Plans
Renner Issues Debt to Cover Leader Acquisition
MetLife Exclusive Policy Writer for 30,000 Brazilian Construction Firms
Visanet Plans IPO
Guarani F.C. To Sell Stadium
Paggo’s Mobile Payment Ambitions
BNDES Agrees to Fund Suez Hydroelectric Project

What Will Become of the UBS-Pactual Pact?

Source: Agência Estado/A Tarde

Bloomberg seems to be picking up stories on a regular basis now from the AE. Do they have a content pipeline, as, for example, the New York Times has set up a content pipeline with the Gazeta Mercantil?

As ações do UBS registravam alta hoje com a notícia de que um investidor está pressionando por mudanças no banco suíço, que poderiam resultar numa divisão da empresa. Entre as mudanças, o investidor pede a venda do Banco Pactual, no Brasil. Na Bolsa de Zurique, as ações do UBS subiam 3,89%, para 33,66 francos suíços, às 8h32 (de Brasília).

UBS shares were up today on news that an investor is pressing for changes at the Swiss bank, which might result in a breakup of the company. Among the changes, the investor is calling for the sale of Banco Pactual in Brazil. Shares on the Zurich exchange rose 3.89% to 33.66 Swiss francs, as of 8:32 Brasília time.

GMT minus 3.

Dinheiro Vivo (Luis Nassif) had reported last week (unsourced) that UBS might go to court here to dissolve the relationship with Pactual. The investment banking arm leads the Brazilian league charts in deal origination. About which more in a bit. See also

• “UBS Will Dissolve Banco Pactual Partnership”: Report

Rei do Mate: Mom and Pop Will Sell the Shop?

Source: Canal Executivo

Rei do Mate arruma a casa à espera de pretendentes

Rei do Mate, expecting suitors, puts its house in order

My wife — my in-house Brazilian consumer focus group of one — is just crazy about the beverage and snacks chain, built around the sour-bitter supercaffeinated herbal beverage that down South they like to drink in the form of chimarrão. She explains that when it is just too hot for coffee, a chilled mate gets the job done nicely.

It took me a long time to warm up to maté myself, but I now find I can drink it with pleasure when batida with abacaxí.

The “professionalization” of management at traditional Brazilian family-owned businesses is a trend I am trying to follow. A soap-operatic case of the pitfalls of this business model, in the news lately, is the Rede Bahia media group:

• Brazil: “Dynastic Succession Struggle at TV Bahia”

Politically charged cases like this aside, I sense there is a lot of interest in the “dark liquidity” of family-owned businesses here, and you hear more and more about consulting services specializing in “succession planning” and “management professionalization.” I have been corresponding with some of these consultancies to see what I can dig up.

Com quase 240 lojas em operação em 16 estados do Brasil e um crescimento médio de 30 lojas ao ano, a rede de franquias Rei do Mate está deixando para trás o modelo de gestão familiar.

With nearly 240 shops in operation in 16 Brazilian states, and average growth of 30 shops a year, the Rei do Mate franchise chain is leaving the model of family management behind.

“The Real Brazil”: The Industrial Revolution Will Not Be Televised

By Roberto Cavalcanti de Albuquerque and Joao Paulo dos Reis Velloso (publication date not something that Brazilian online booksellers think you might want to know).

Brazilian Justice Minister Tarso Genro hammers on a familar note in Valor Econômico yesterday:

O Brasil da mídia e o Brasil real

The Media’s Brazil and the Real Brazil

Genro is the leading figure in the centrist Campo Majoritário faction in the ruling PT (Worker’s Party). The argument he makes here is not especially original, but interesting in that its constant reiteration seems to stem from the conviction that this talking point is an extremely effective one.

Em artigo publicado recentemente, o ex-presidente de Portugal, Mário Soares, apresentou suas impressões sobre a atual situação brasileira. Soares esteve no Brasil em fevereiro e percorreu três das mais importantes cidades brasileiras (São Paulo, Belo Horizonte e Brasília). Na ocasião, encontrou-se com o presidente Lula e com algumas de nossas mais expressivas lideranças oposicionistas – FHC, Aécio Neves e José Serra. O líder português constatou a existência de duas “realidades” bem distintas: uma encontrada nas páginas de nossos principais jornais e nas imagens da TV (que parece retratar um país “à beira de um colapso”); e outra verificada no cotidiano dos brasileiros (que percebem que seu país “está a dar certo”).

In a recently published article, former president of Portugal Mário Soares presented his impressions of the current situation in Brazil. He was in Brazil in February and traveled to the three most important Brazilian cities (São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Brasília). He met with President da Silva and some of our most prominent opposition leaders — [former president] Cardoso, [Minas Gerais governor] Neves and [São Paulo governor] Serra. The Portuguese leader noted the existence of two very different “realities” here: One found in the pages of our leading newspapers and on our TV screens (which seem to show us a nation “on the brink of collapse”); and another experienced in the everyday lives of Brazilians (who perceive that their country “is starting to get on track.”)

Morning Briefing: Breakfast With The Bem-Te-Vi

Some morning business headlines from the Brazilian press. The bem-te-vi is a sort of yellow-bellied bluejay in a burglar’s mask who starts in to screeching early in our neck of the woods here in São Paulo.

Why did Peru make sovereign investment grade before Brazil did?

The Ministry of Justice wants a recall of 477,000 Volkwagen Fox models, reports Invertia.

SÃO PAULO – O uso do sistema eletrônico de negociação da Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo, o Home Broker cresceu no mês de março, quando 31,24% do negócios, o equivalente a 2,37 milhões de transações, foram feitos por esse mecanismo. É um novo recorde de participação no uso do sistema.

Some 2.4 million transactions worth R$24.11 billion (US$14 billion) were executed in March using the Home Broker trading system for individual investors, promoted by the Bovespa stock market and registered brokerage houses — 31.24% of transaction volume and 11.22% of transaction value.

Valor Econômico cuts and pastes the press release.

The CBLC (the Brazilian Custody and Settlement Company) reports having 485,981 individual investor trade settlement accounts registered. The Bovepa reports 2,372 registered investment clubs.

Overall trading volume at the Bovespa was down 9.45% in March, reports Exame. The Ibovespa index zeroed its year-to-date losses yesterday and began operating in the black again.

DCI leads with two trend stories. First, debt issuance has overtaken equity issuance in the first quarter of 2008, after a record-breaking year for IPOs in 2007.

As emissões de renda fixa e variável tiveram uma inversão nos primeiros meses do ano. Se no primeiro trimestre de 2007 a renda variável abocanhava a maior fatia de participação no lançamento de papéis, com 76,6% e giro de R$ 11,727 bilhões, de janeiro a março deste ano a renda fixa virou o jogo e responde por 85,5% do montante, com uma carteira de R$ 36,984 bilhões. “A volatilidade no mercado de ações nos últimos meses, provocada pela crise norte-americana, retraiu o apetite pelo risco e aumentou a preferência pela renda fixa”, argumenta Reginaldo Ferreira Alexandre, vice-presidente da Associação dos Analistas e Profissionais de Investimento do Mercado de Capitais de São Paulo (Apimec-SP).

Fixed income and variable income issues have switched roles in the first months of 2008. While variable income issues enjoyed the lion’s share of issuance in 1Q07 (76.6%, worth R$11.727 billion), fixed income accounted for 85.5% of R$37 billion issued in 1Q08. “Volatility in the stock markets in recent months provoked by the crisis in the U.S. has taken the edge off the investor’s appetite for risk and increased his preference for fixed income,” says Ferreira Alexandre of APIMEC-SP.

Belaboring the obvious.