US-based law firm White & Case has elected Mexico City-based Sean Goldstein as partner in its global project finance practice. He has experience representing sponsors in a wide variety of infrastructure and energy projects as well as in asset finance work. Goldstein is one of 35 new partners elected for 2011.
Category: People
Posted inDaily Brief
Correction: HSBC Adds Equity Head
An October 8 Daily Brief misspells the name of HSBC’s recently hired head of equity trading for LatAm. The correct spelling is Delfos Machado Neto.
Posted inDaily Brief
Grant Thornton Gets Brazil Affiliate
Global accounting and consulting firm Grant Thornton has added Brazil’s Pryor Consulting Services as an affiliate, says Steven Brady, national managing partner of transaction advisory services. The new affiliate, which is changing its name to Grant Thornton, has a staff of about 500 and annual revenues of about $17m. “The firm has a long history in advisory services and has helped US-based companies establish a presence in Brazil and navigate through local tax laws and regulations,” says partner Marco Venicio Sanches. The addition of Pryor comes after Grant Thornton’s previous local affiliate, Terco, sold itself to Ernst & Young in August for an undisclosed amount.
Posted inDaily Brief
Petrobras Reported Eyeing Jumbo Debt
Petrobras plans to raise $60bn from the debt markets in the next 5 years, according to local press and wire reports citing CEO Jose Sergio Gabrielli. Fresh off of a $70bn equity raise last month, the state-run oil producer will now turn to debt markets as it looks to fund an investment plan of more than $220bn. Petrobras does not foresee additional equity, Gabrielli is reported as saying. The company’s borrowing needs, and the effect they might have on its credit ratings, have been among the factors dragging down the stock this year. Petrobras preferred and common shares closed Friday at BRL26.00 and BRL29.00, respectively, representing drops of 3.0% and 4.1% since the September 23 equity sale, and of 28.8% and 29.0% on the year.
Posted inDaily Brief
HSBC Adds Equity Head
HSBC has hired Delfons Machado Neto as head of LatAm equities, according to a bank spokeswoman. Machado, who was previously a partner at Dunamis Equity Partners in New York, will be based in Sao Paulo. Prior to Dunamis, he had been head of equity trading at Itau and head of equity and derivatives trading at Santander Brasil.
Posted inDaily Brief
UBS Taps Centola For Brazil
Eduardo Centola has resigned as head of corporate investment banking for the Americas for Standard Bank, and will be going to UBS, according to a representative at Standard. He is expected to lead the rebuild of UBS’ investment banking division in Brazil. UBS declines to comment on the news, though a person close to the company says confirmation will be issued shortly. Centola joined Standard from Goldman Sachs in 2009, one of several who left Goldman for Standard that year, particularly on the Brazil M&A side. He was co-head of LatAm investment banking at Goldman. To counter a slew of senior LatAm IB, UBS has been quietly staffing up in a variety of product areas this year, and had been expected to make senior Brazil appointments. According to UBS, since it bought Brazilian brokerage Link Investimentos for BRL195m in April, it has jumped to fourth by market share of cash equity trading market, from seventh previously.
Posted inDaily Brief
JPMorgan Heard Appointing Loan Expert
Rodrigo Gracia will be joining JP Morgan’s syndicated loans team, say people with knowledge of the situation. He was heard to have recently quit as vice president at Credit Agricole’s syndicated loans group after 6 years at the bank. Gracia has previously worked at JPMorgan, from July 2000 to December 2001in the syndicated finance division, where he was involved in structuring and executing syndicated loan transactions in the US and LatAm. He has also worked at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Serfin in Mexico. JPMorgan has been without a head of LatAm loan syndications since it made Ricardo Rubio redundant in late 2008 as part of a 10% reduction in global headcount, focused on investment banking and including other senior debt bankers. The bank has long been expected to replace Rubio to support an active DCM, ECM and M&A franchise. However, it is understood to have covered LatAm from its US loan desk over the last few years, given the very low level of activity in regional syndications. A JPMorgan spokeswoman declines to comment and Gracia does not return calls.
Posted inDaily Brief
Anhanguera Names CEO
Brazilian education company Anhanguera Educacional has named Alexandre Dias as CEO. He replaces Ricardo Scavazza, who returns to his previous position of CFO. Dias joins from Google Brasil. He will mainly work to enhance the application of IT in Anhanguera’s courses.
Posted inDaily Brief
Aguzin Joins JPMorgan Brass
Nicolas Aguzin, CEO of Latin America at JPMorgan, has joined the bank’s firmwide executive committee, according to a memo from global chief Jamie Dimon. Dimon says Aguzin is part of a group of key senior leaders from across the firm.
Posted inMagazine
Investment Bank Fees: Glass Half Full?
Investment bankers have run out of ways to describe the rich revenue potential in LatAm. Those with other products to offer are chasing a much bigger pot.