Purchase of Órama by BTG expands consolidation of brokers – 10/03/2023 – Market

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BTG buys another broker

BTG Pactual announced this Monday the purchase of Órama Investimentos, for R$500 million.

The broker has approximately R$18 billion in assets under custody and 360 thousand customersand only the fund management business was not included in the transaction.

The Órama: was launched in 2011 as a platform dedicated to the distribution of investment funds.

• Since then, it has carried out fundraising rounds, which involved the entry into the business of Globo Ventures, in 2017, and SulAmérica, in 2019 – each had 25% of the brokerage.

BTG’s strategy: the purchase strengthens the institution in an increasingly concentrated market, in which large companies in the sector are acquiring smaller rivals.

• André Esteves’ bench In recent years, it has already acquired the brokerages Necton, Fator and Elite, in addition to taking away from XP investment advisory offices, such as Acqua-Vero and EQI, attracted by the project of becoming brokerages with BTG as a partner.

• XP led the operations of Rico, Clear and Banco Modal. She also became a partner in brokerages that emerged from advisor offices, such as Faros, Messem and Monte Bravo.

• There are also cases of large foreign groups that invested resources in local businesses, such as the Chinese company Fosun, which acquired the Guide, and GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, which invested in Warren.

Even with all this concentration, there are houses that are betting on independence, as shown by Sheet last month.

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At Airbnb, it’s time to tidy up your house

Amid a series of challenges involving guests, hosts and public authorities, Airbnb decided it’s time to stop everything to clean up the house.

• The message was given by the platform’s founder and CEO, Brian Chesky, to Bloomberg.

“Our system was designed for a much smaller company that grew like crazy. It’s like we never completely built the foundation. Like, we had a house and it had four pillars when we needed to have ten.”

The conflicts that worry the Airbnb CEO:

↳ Guests x hosts: those who are visiting want to spend less and be guaranteed that they will receive what they saw when they closed the rental. Whoever is transferring the property is concerned about possible drops in reserves and their financial results.

• How Airbnb wants to resolve: with the use of AI (artificial intelligence). It will serve to ensure that the accommodation exists – combining photos of the house with images from Google Earth, for example.

• For hosts, the tool will help with price information, comparing with hotel rates. It will also recognize guests who host parties in rented locations – something that violates the platform’s policies.

↳ Governments x Airbnb: Some cities have restricted the rental of houses and apartments through the platform, on the grounds that this has increased property prices. The most notorious case is New York, which threatens to fine anyone who adopts this practice.

• How Airbnb wants to resolve: The first step was to reduce the city’s dependence on its revenues, which in 2010 was around 70%. Today, no one location represents more than half a percent of business.

• The platform also offers other services in New York, such as renting guided tours or photo shoots.

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Exchange houses boom in Argentina

The economic crisis that throws Argentines into poverty, devastates the exchange rate and causes local inflation to soar ends up fueling a boom in financial market brokers.

The reason for this lies in the frantic race of the country’s residents to transfer the pesos they receive into dollars before the local currency ends up losing even more value.

• The movement generated mass hiring of these financial houses, which are rushing to open new offices and launch apps for smartphones.

• At the same time, banks are cutting staff because there is little investment.

Understand: The contrast in the financial world happens because it is the exchange offices that operate the parallel dollar, called “blue”.

A Sheet showed in August how the explosion of the dollar after the country’s primary elections confused even Brazilians who were used to the rise and fall of the local currency.

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Gocil owner requests judicial recovery

The Handz Group, owner of Gocil Serviços de Vigilância e Segurança, filed for judicial recovery last Friday (29). The company declared debts of R$ 1.76 billionmost of them with banking institutions.

• The group is made up of 12 companies, from the general services, security, real estate and agribusiness sectors. See them all here.

The petition also includes the owner of Grupo Handz, Washington Umberto Cinel, a businessman known for being one of the supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

• The businessman appears on the list because he lent money to the business, explains Filipe Denki, a lawyer specializing in judicial recovery, from Lara Martins Advogados.

The group attributes the crisis the drop in demand caused by Covid-19, the high leverage to finance agricultural activities and the increase in the Selic interest rate.

Among the major clients mentioned by the company are the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, the University of Caxias do Sul (UCS), the multinational food company Nestlé, the shopping center company Iguatemi and the DPSP group, owner of Drogaria São Paulo.

To continue on the subject of judicial recovery: