Maua Spinoff Targets Real Estate, Agriculture

A small group of professionals at Maua Investimentos, the Brazilian hedge fund, have left the asset manager to start a new vehicle, to be called Octante Capital. The initiative, headed by William Trosman and Martha de Sa, formerly part of the new markets section of Maua, will focus on structuring deals in real estate and agriculture. The entity has some BRL50m under management, but will look to raise external resources after developing a track record. Sa and Trosman split on amicable terms from Maua, which made a strategic decision to focus on core asset management, motivated by near crippling losses over the past 12 months. Octante will compete with local shops like Vision, which specializes in securitization of agriculture and real estate, among other things. The team wants to hire a credit specialist and may look to local banks and asset managers.