Category: People

LatAm veteran Mohamed El-Erian is taking over the CEO role at Pimco when his co-CEO Bill Thompson retires at the end of this year. El-Erian managed the Harvard endowment before returning to Pimco in January. He will also continue his role as co-CIO with Bill Gross. Pimco controls $840bn in client assets.

Petrobras is studying the possibility of holding a new share sale to raise money needed to develop its newfound oilfields, according to wire reports citing CEO Jose Sergio Gabrielli. Gabrielli added that no sale is yet scheduled, and that the company prefers to issue debt – pointing to a debt-to-revenue ratio of 17% that could be boosted to 25-35%. The state-controlled oil producer has said it plans to raise about $5bn in debt this year, and is expected to come to that market this fall, following an aborted cross-border bond deal after a non-deal road show this spring.

The Standard Chartered Private Bank has appointed Diego Folino regional head of its Americas unit based in Miami. Folino is currently President and CEO of Standard Chartered Bank International, formerly American Express Bank International. He will be responsible for the private bank offices in New York, Miami and LatAm, as well as governance oversight of the Miami office and of the private bank network marketing offices in California and Canada. He reports to Peter Flavel, global head of Standard Chartered Private Bank, as well David Stileman, CEO of Standard Chartered Americas. Folino was previously CEO of Standard Chartered Mexico, where he was largely responsible for broadening corporate and institutional client relationships and building the wholesale franchise. Gil Schmidt, regional head of Standard Chartered Private Bank Americas was meanwhile appointed global head of strategy implementation and new ventures.

Roger Agnelli, the CEO of Brazilian miner Vale, says he is not focused on large acquisitions, according to wire reports citing his remarks on a Thursday conference call. A more likely scenario is for Vale to make small and medium-sized purchases, according to the reports. Agnelli reportedly considers acquisitions possible but not probable. The company is also actively developing a number of organic growth projects. Earlier this year Vale tried to acquire Xstrata for some $90bn, and raised upwards of $50bn in debt financing for the deal, which fell apart before any agreement was signed. It is also in talks to acquire Paranapanema assets in Brazil, and rumored as a potential bidder for CSN’s Namisa and Mexico’s Autlan, both of which are on the block. In June it raised $12bn through an equity follow-on without specifying use of proceeds, other than saying capex and potential acquisitions were possible. An eventual acquisition of Lonmin by Xstrata would make the Swiss company even more expensive. Xstrata this week made an unsolicited bid $10bn for Lonmin, which was summarily rejected by the target.

Diagnosticos da America’s CEO Marcelo Moreira is leaving the medical testing service provider, effective immediately. He is replaced on an interim basis by Luiz Rosenfeld, formerly Dasa’s medical vice president. Itau’s research division sees the change as neutral, and finds that Moreira believes he has completed his project at the company and that it is ready to act on the growth plan he laid out. “While we would prefer to see Moreira stay through a longer transitioning process, we see few chances for disruption of Dasa’s strategic initiatives, which include acquisitions, organic growth and the integration of subsidiaries,” it says. Dasa has grown through acquisitions, and placed $250m in 2018 bonds in May.

Mexico’s Banorte is increasing its exposure to infrastructure amid an unprecendente push by the government to ramp up construction, its CEO Alejandro Valenzuela tells LatinFinance. He sees infrastructure as a huge opportunity for the bank, and says Banorte has about $270 million in venture capital invested in projects including housing, toll roads and bridges. Banorte’s strategy is to be a temporary investor in projects for an average period of five years. For the full interview, go to LatinFinance.com.

Deutsche Bank has poached Bernando Parnes, CEO of Bradesco’s investment banking unit, to become Deutsche Bank’s chief country officer for Brazil. Parnes, who was hired by Bradesco in June 2006 to build its investment banking business, will take up his new post in Sao Paulo in August, reporting to Americas CEO Seth Waugh and EM head Dalinc Ariburnu. Parnes previously worked as CEO of Safra Group’s JSI Investimentos and as country head for Brazil at Merrill Lynch. The move is a setback for Bradesco, which is making a push to build out its BBI investment banking platform. As the key executive behind this push, Parnes oversaw an aggressive hiring push and building out of BBI over the past year and a half.

Bernardo Gradin has been appointed CEO of Brazilian petrochemical producer Braskem. Jose Carlos Grubisich, CEO for the past seven years, will become CEO of ETH Energia, the sugar and ethanol producer controlled by Braskem’s parent company Odebrecht. Gradin joined Odebrecht in 1987, where most recently he served as head of Odebrecht Infrastructure and Investments (OII). He has also served in important positions at CNO and as CEO at Trikem, one of the companies later incorporated into Braskem, adds the company.

Two leading executives at Brazil-based agricultural trading company Agrenco were arrested last week in Sao Paulo. Antonio Iafelice, CEO and Antonio Augusto Pires, COO, were taken in amid investigations into an alleged illegal trading ring, according to local press, which cites the federal police. An Agrenco spokesperson in Sao Paulo confirms the arrests. The Franco-Brazilian soft commodities trading company, headquartered in Bermuda, went public last October via a BDR listing. It delivered poor quarterly results and saw its stock drop to BRL2.35 from BRL10.40 before news about the arrests broke. “The company was highly levered and had falling cashflow metrics,” says a Brazil-based equity investor. “For a trading company, cashflow is everything.” Agrenco went public via Credit Suisse, which provided a pre-IPO loan of $30m at Libor plus 200bp in May 2006.