Foreign Brokers Heard Eyeing Sao Paulo

Foreigners’ desire to gain direct access to Brazilian securities markets remains strong, according to industry experts. “There are two large foreign brokers – a German one and an American one – that are in advanced discussions to acquire brokers in Brazil,” Manoel Felix Cintra Neto, former chairman of the BM&F and president of ANCOR, Brazil’s national association of brokerages, tells LatinFinance. He declines to name the interested parties. Last year a handful of Brazilian BM&F and Bovespa-focused brokerages in Brazil were snapped up by foreigners. These include the BGC Partners, which bought Liquidez DTVM for an estimated BRL500m in August, and London-based ICAP, which bought Arkhe DTVM for $17m in November. Cintra declines to specify potential targets, but notes that transactions could be worth over BRL500m each. Also in 2008, Citi bought Intra, Bradesco bought Agora, and Colombia’s InterBolsa took a majority stake in Finabank.