Tag Archive for 'Brazil'

BRICs at 10

Published on November 30, 2011 in Emerging Markets. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

So, was he right? Ten years ago Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs looked at four growth economies – Brazil, China, India and Russia – put their first letters into an acronym, and the Brics (as a concept) were born.

So how have they fared? What if you invested in the Brics ten years ago – where would you be now? Chart of the week finds out. There are a myriad of ways of looking at this, but beyondbrics is going to be hard-headed and stick to equities and GDP.

A quick look at the MSCI indices for the four Brics since 2001 shows that they have comfortably outperformed the S&P 500. If you invested $100 at the time of O’Neill’s report in November 2001 in each of the four Brics, you would now have $674 from Brazil, $451 from China, $459 from India and $414 from Russia. Your 100 S&P bucks? Worth $112 [Read more].

For Hedge Fund Investors, Brazil Is the Country of Now

Published on April 1, 2011 in Emerging Markets and International Finance. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Ten years ago, Goldman Sachs proclaimed that Brazil was among the new economic powerhouses. Now it is the next frontier for hedge funds. Looking to capitalise on the fast-growing region, global hedge fund managers have started to descend on Brazil. In all, hedge fund assets devoted to the region rose 75 percent, to $21.4 billion, in 2010, according to data from Hedge Fund Research.

The appeal is obvious. While many developed countries have sputtered amid weak economic growth, Brazil has continued to thrive, given its rich reserve of natural resources and growing middle class. Last year, the country’s gross domestic product increased 7.5 percent — helping catapult Brazil ahead of Britain and France to become the fifth-largest economy in the world.

“In the past five years, about 34 million Brazilians entered the middle class,” said Oscar Decotelli, a partner at Vision Brazil Investments, a $2 billion alternative investment firm based in São Paulo. “This for a population of 200 million is significant. Brazil is not just a commodity story, but a very strong domestic story.” [Source]

Emergence of a New Global Business Player

Published on September 2, 2010 in Global Strategy and International Business. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

Burger King agreed on Thursday to sell itself to the investment firm 3G Capital for about $4 billion, including the assumption of debt, marking the second time in eight years that the fast-food giant has taken itself private. The agreement on Thursday for Burger King Holdings to be acquired by a Brazilian-backed investment firm, like a deal two years ago for Anheuser-Busch that involved some of the same investors, is one of those emblematic transactions that seem to herald the emergence of a new global business player.

The growth of the Brazilian economy in recent years has created a whole new class of wealthy entrepreneurs who are looking for opportunities to invest their fortunes and are not daunted by the idea of trying their luck beyond Brazil’s borders. Traditionally, Brazilian business has been dominated by an often cautious elite based in São Paulo, the country’s industrial and financial hub. But the economic surge of the last decade has changed that.

One thing is clear, though: Brazil’s dominance in all phases of the global beef industry. The country is already the leading beef exporter and now, thanks to the Burger King deal on Thursday, it has another outlet to encourage consumption globally [Source].