Category: Daily Brief

Vinci Partners, the new Sao Paulo-based fund set up by former managers of Pactual Capital Partners (PCP), has hired Clecius Peixoto, LatAm portfolio manager at Emerging Markets Management (EMM), say people close to the move. Peixoto, who was based in Arlington, spent 11 years at EMM, which has over $12bn in AUM, and managed the fund’s LatAm portfolio. He joins Vinci as a partner and will run a Brazil-focused equity portfolio from the asset manager’s Sao Paulo office. The executive was apparently lured back to Brazil by the opportunity to participate in the country’s ongoing growth spurt, as well as interest in the domestic market, say people close to the executive. Vinci, which was launched at the end of 2009, is run by PCP founder Gilberto Sayao, a former senior partner at Banco Pactual, alongside Andre Esteves, now head of BTG Pactual. PCP was founded to manage the wealth of former Pactual partners and is in the process of winding down its portfolio and transferring some holdings to Vinci. This includes a 25% stake in homebuilder PDG Realty. The company is conducting a public follow-on offering, scheduled for February 4, designed to transfer PCP’s stake to Vinci and bring in new investors. Vinci has committed to purchase at least 10% of the deal and has the right to purchase the entire stake. Vinci is also in the process of merging assets with those of GAS Investimentos, a Sao Paulo-based fund with over BRL2bn AUM. Combined with GAS, Vinci will have close to BRL8bn under management. Meanwhile, EMM has adjusted its coverage. CEO Felicia Morrow, will assume day-to-day running of the LatAm portfolio with the help of a team of senior analysts. Two of them were hired recently, according to an executive close to the process.

Investors have lapped up Brasil Foods’ debut $750m 2020 bond issue, which was upsized by 50%, priced well through guidance and traded steady on the break. Buyers appear confident about the prospects for the entity formed from the last year’s combination of poultry rivals Perdigao and Sadia, ordering more than $5bn of the tasty offer, according to bankers on it. The BB+/Ba1 deal priced at 99.127 with a 7.250% coupon to yield 7.375%, or UST plus 377.4bp, inside 7.625% area guidance. Despite tightening and growth from an expected $500m, the bond was heard trading up around 0.5 points late Thursday, investors say. Despite widespread US-inspired market weakness, Brasil Foods appears to have taken advantage of overall bullishness on Brazilian corporates. It also seems to have convinced investors of a solid rebound from Sadia’s credit crisis-related balance sheet problems. “They are coming from a messy background, but if you look at where the numbers should be eventually, this looks like a low triple B credit,” says an EM investor following the deal. He adds that such an upgrade could come within a year and tighten spreads by up to 100bp. In a research report, RBS spots fair value on the new bond at 25bp-50bp wide of outstanding 6.875% Sadia 2017s that trade to yield around 7.000%. “Quality Brazilian names are getting a good reception,” says a banker away from the trade, despite investors beginning to become a bit more selective overall. Itau, JPMorgan and Santander managed the sale. Lower rated Brazilian agriculture names, including Minerva and Vanguarda, are poised to follow, though HY market conditions are looking less rosy.

The IMF says Haiti needs a major international aid plan and has pledged an initial $100m interest free as emergency funding, while also urging donors to grant additional debt relief. “My belief is that Haiti – which has been incredibly hit by different things – the food and fuel prices crisis, then the hurricane, then the earthquake – needs something that is big,” says the fund’s MD, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. “Not only a piecemeal approach, but something which is much bigger to deal with the reconstruction of the country: some kind of a Marshall Plan,” he adds in an interview circulated by the IMF. The fund provided a loan to Haiti rather than an outright grant to speed disbursement, since it has no immediate way to make a grant. The IMF and other financial organizations gave about $1.2bn of debt relief to Haiti in June 2009. The World Bank and IDB have in the past 6 months granted almost $900m in additional debt relief. According to Nicolas Eyzaguirre, director of the IMF’s western hemisphere department, most of the island’s productive capacity was located around Port-au-Prince and destroyed in the earthquake. “Banks will reopen shortly but the payments system is not fully operational yet,” he adds, saying also that some transfer houses that receive remittances have reopened. Haitian officials say the quake has killed up to 200,000 people, injured some 250,000, and made 1.5m homeless.