Arab fund becomes controller of Bluefit for BRL 464 million – 09/04/2023 – Market

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Arab fund takes control of Bluefit

The gym chain Bluefit announced on Saturday (2) that Mubadala, linked to the sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates, will pay BRL 464.1 million to stay with 51% of the company’s shares, assuming its control.

• Bluefit said that the operation is subject to approval by Cade (Administrative Council for Economic Defense) and other usual conditions for transactions of this nature.

in numbers: the Arab fund will pay BRL 114.1 million to buy shares of current partners in the gym network. the others BRL 350 million will be contributed to the company via the issuance of shares.

pumped sector: Mubadala’s investment in Bluefit comes at a time of boom in fitness business.

• Two weeks ago, Gympass, a wellness benefits platform for the corporate world, received a contribution of $85 millions (R$419 million), which valued it at US$2.4 billion (R$11.8 billion).

• Smartfit, a gym chain that went public in 2021, sees its shares rise by 70% this year with balances that pleased the market. Priced at R$21.88, the shares were close to the IPO price (R$23).

Petrodollars: the moment is also one of effervescence of contributions from countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in Brazilian companies.

• Mubadala himself has been buying shares in Zamp, the group responsible for Burger King’s operations in the country, after having his acquisition offer turned down last year. Today the fund is the company’s largest shareholder, with 21% of the capital.

• In July, Salic, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, bought 10% of BRF’s capital for BRL 1.6 billion via share offering.

Who is who:

Bluefit: the gym network founded in 2015, in Santo André (SP), ended the second quarter with 133 units, including owned and franchised establishments, and 338 thousand active students. The company even tried an IPO in 2021, but withdrew from the process with the worsening of the stock market.

Mubadala: the asset management arm of the UAE sovereign wealth fund manages $284 billion (BRL 1.4 trillion) around the world. In addition to the aforementioned investments, the fund also owns the Mataripe refinery, in Bahia.

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Startup of the Week: Fleet 162

On Mondays, the chart shows an x-ray of a startup that recently announced a fundraising.

The startup: Founded last year, Frota 162 brings together on a platform the management of fines, drivers, vehicle restrictions, document data and other information aimed at fleet companies.

In numbers: the startup announced last week a contribution of BRL 3 millionits first since it was created.

Who invested: the round was led by ACE Ventures, the investment arm of the accelerator of the same name, and had the participation of Fundo Soberano do Espírito Santo and Venture Hub.

What problem does it solve: the startup says that its platform saves 40% of the cost of delays in documents and reduces by 80% the time that fleet companies spend managing fines and drivers.

Why it stands out: the startup, which already had revenues two months after launching the product on the market, is now growing at an average of 15% per month, with the aim of multiplying the size of the operation by four by the end of the year.

The company has more than 44,000 vehicles in its base, 10,000 monitored drivers and its portfolio of 100 clients includes names such as Armac, Rodonaves, Framento, Lets Locadora and Kothe.

market numbers

After a positive July, the month of August came to reinforce the expectation that the bottom of the well of investment in Latin American startups may be behind us.

• They were $1.2 billion invested in 79 rounds. The billionaire level was not reached by the sector for 11 months, according to Sling Hub, a data platform on startups in Latin America.

Although the result was boosted by the debt financing rounds, which do not involve the acquisition of startups, equity investments also rose in the period.

• In Brazil, equity investment rounds in the sector totaled US$ 352 million in August, the best month since May 2022. Highlights for funding from Gympass (US$ 85 million) and Nomad (US$ 62.6 million).

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More educated Brazilian sees income plummet

The Brazilian workers who lost the most income and job quality in the last ten years were those with more years of study.

The conclusion is from research by the Brazilian Institute of Economics at FGV based on IBGE data.

In numbers:

• 16.7% was the drop in average income in the period from 2012 to 2023 of those who studied 16 years or more.

• 27.5% was the increase in income in that time interval of those with less than one year of study.

Which explains: those with more education have been pushed into lower quality and less productive jobs over the past ten years, reflecting on jobs that pay less and are increasingly informal.

On the other hand, the income of those who studied less was boosted from 2020, when the pandemic arrived and less qualified labor became more valued in the face of social isolation.

Why it matters: the results show that higher education is giving less return in Brazil. It is a problem for an economy that still lacks skilled labor.

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The GDP surprise

The Brazilian GDP for the second quarter surprised specialists by growing 0.9% in relation to the previous three months.

In numbers: market analysts had expected a rise of 0.4% in relation to January-March growth, which was revised from 1.9% to 1.8% by the IBGE.

The surprise made economists review once again the calculations for the performance of the economy this year. Before at around 2.5%, now the accounts vary between 2.8% and 3.1%.

• See here the GDP of several countries in the second quarter.

Repercussion: the result caused the stock market to record a sharp increase, the dollar to fall, and was celebrated by members of the government.

BC president Roberto Campos Neto said that the economy’s performance was qualitatively better. Minister Fernando Haddad (Finance), however, said he was worried about the third quarter.

Three points to understand 2nd quarter GDP:

1 – On demand: highlight for household consumption, which rose 0.9% from April to June compared to the previous quarter. The segment accounts for about 60% of the indicator.

• The government’s incentive program (for cars and fuel), the increase in the value of Bolsa Família, controlled inflation and the strength of the labor market are cited as reasons for the result.

2 – In the offer: the agro GDP once again did well. Despite the 0.9% drop compared to January and March, when the sector surged 21%, in the second quarter growth was 17% compared to the same period of the previous year, thanks to the super harvest.

• Other highlights were increases in industry (0.9%) and services (0.6%).

3 – Opinion:

• It was known that growth would be driven by fiscal impulse, increase in wages and credit for individuals. But the result of all this in GDP was greater than expected, says Vinicius Torres Freire.

• It is possible that the growth rate of labor productivity is greater than we imagine, writes Samuel Pessôa.