Barcap Looks to Build Brazil M&A

Barclays is heard to be on the lookout for a Brazil-based M&A banker, according to Sao Paulo-based executives. Barclays’ primary focus in the region has been debt markets. But with Lehman Brothers, the UK bank has acquired investment banking capabilities in the region that include M&A. Barclays’ Brazil office today has representatives for Barclays Capital (Barcap), which focuses on debt trading, derivatives, and some bond issuance, and Barclays Global Investors, the asset management arm. Barclays says it employs some 90 people in Sao Paulo. Most investment banks with regional M&A practices tend to have at least one senior banker with a Brazil focus, given the country’s size and its cultural uniqueness. This would be one way for Barclays to enter more value added business lines within investment banking and allow it to parlay M&A expertise into financing mandates with loans and bonds, where Barclays already has a franchise. Senior Barcap executives decline to comment on the initiative.