So what shows up the Sambodian business radar today? Well, in the past month, Brazil has celebrated 56 M&A deals, according to the Estado de S. Paulo, which essentially just cut-and-pastes from a PWC report.
At the top of the list: Equity International’s acquisition of Thá; Estapar’s purchase of Brascan Open Mall; Buscapé, with the Resolva.me deal; and XP Investimentos, which assumed control of brokerage house Prime Corretora.
Is this number more or less than the historical trend would lead one to believe? The trends peaks in 1999, in the wake of generalized privatizations starting in 1997, then falls off with the election of a government believed to present a risk of renationalization. It then recovers as the government proves less radical than feared.
In other news, civil construction giant Andrade Gutiérrez is said to be bidding on new business in post-Gaddafi Libya.
Conglomerates Camargo Correa and Odebrecht are also active overseas players, often in former Portuguese colonies. Another player is Queiroz Galvão, whose Exploração e Produção (QGEP) oil & gas says it has applied succesfully to assume control of an exploration bloc in the Santos Basin.
The National Petroleum agency approved the transfer, by Shell to QGEP, of a 30% share of rights, as well as operational control of Santos Bloc BS-4, na Bacia de Santos.
In August 2011, the company signed an operating deal worth US$ 157,5 milhões.The bloc comprises two field of heavy petroleum, Atlanta e Oliva, totaling2 billion barrels.
The other consortium members are Petrobras (40%) and Barra Energia (30%).
Fall of a Fashion Retail Queen
Valor Econômico, along with others, reports on the death of fashion CEO Eliane Tranchesi, whose fall from grace on tax evasion and related charges shocked polite society in 2009. The episode makes for an excellent object lesson in the challenges of maintaining growth at a family-run firm.
Eliana inherited the boutique from her mother, Lucia Piva. The store took its name from the two original partners, Lucia Piva e Lourdes Aranha, both nicknamed Lu.
In the 1990s, when federal president Fernando Collor de Mello opened up the market to imports, the shop began specializing in such goods, creating its own “Daslu style” based on exclusivity, product selection and individual, personalized customer attention.
In 2009, the company found itself in financial difficulties and was targeted for investigation. In March of that year, Eliana was arrested by federal police and sentenced to 94 years and 6 months in prison for criminal conspiracy, import fraud, and perjury. She was imprisoned immediately following the trial but later filed a successful writ of habeas corpus which enabled her to await the outcome of her appeals in freedom.
In February 2011, Daslu’s creditors approved a recovery plan that allowed for the sale of the company by LAEP, a private equity fund.
I have the impression that Eliane furiously opposed the professionalization of management, maintaining her 23-year-old as chairman and CEO.
See also
Eliana Tranchesi | What a Long, Strange Trip (to Prison) It’s Been
In a tangentially related story, LVMH is said to be planning to open a number of Dior outlets in Brazil sometime this year.
Telefónica profits double, leading vigilante consumers more cynical than ever.
Cause for concern, I believe, are signs that Valor is making increasing use — reuse, abuse — of content siphoned in as part of its partnership deal with the Wall Street Journal.
Nothing against the W$J, not even after its Murdochization, but the fact is that such content seems to be crowding out original reporting on local and national Brazilian business stories, of the kind only a Brazilian would pay money to read.
The same goes for the gutsy and combative center-left Carta Capital, which produces excellent pieces of work from time to time on business topics but remains less focused on this beat than one might hope. Its metrosexual union with The Economist comes off as an odd coupling of distinct editorial lines and cultural contexts.
Filed under: Black Markets
