Brazil

Fintechs’ IPO valuations can look beyond Nubank

24 Oct 2024

The $70 bln Brazilian lender is seen as a benchmark for unlisted rivals. But Nubank’s focus on interest income, and the idiosyncrasies of its home market, make it look rather different to the likes of Revolut. Bankers prepping neobank IPOs may gain from looking at other peers.

BHP’s dam disaster dealings leave a bad taste

21 Oct 2024

The miner and partners are offering Brazilian authorities $23 bln in damages for a 2015 catastrophe, but with most of it paid over 20 years. And BHP was in hot water trying to hinder a related $47 bln lawsuit in London. Both take the argument of protecting shareholders too far.

EU deforestation ban creates a hazy trade future

23 Sep 2024

The European Union wants to ban agricultural imports from deforested land. The rules have laudable aims but will impact $400 bln worth of goods. Developing nations are already exporting elsewhere. To avoid losing vital supplies, Brussels can compensate farmers or lower standards.

Telegram and X expose tech platforms’ new reality

12 Sep 2024

The arrest of Pavel Durov, founder of the controversial messaging app, and the ban of X in Brazil shows state officials are not afraid to intervene in Big Tech. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists debate what it means and how CEOs should manage the threat.

BHP boss hopes a week is a long time in dealmaking

23 May 2024

Mike Henry has won an extra seven days to try to seal a deal with Anglo American. The trick will be to persuade his harried quarry that its own breakup plan is more risky than BHP's three-step approach. It's a battle of egos, and may yet require upping the $46 bln proposal.

Mining pain may be just getting started

22 Feb 2024

Falling prices for nickel, lithium and copper have hit earnings at Glencore and Anglo American. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists explain why competition and dwindling demand for electric vehicles will keep key battery commodities under pressure.

BHP and Rio take competition out of going green

9 Feb 2024

The giant miners are teaming up to try and decarbonise steel production. Cutting the 8% of global emissions the current process belches out is key to saving the planet. The collaboration can help Australia keep up too. It makes this unusual setting aside of rivalry doubly smart.

OPEC+ is a weird club for Brazil to want to join

30 Nov 2023

Latin America’s largest economy is mulling joining the 23-strong oil producer group. But OPEC+’s latest 2 mln barrels of daily cuts are not needed to balance the market, will rile the US at a sensitive time, and may increase internal strife. It seems more like a club to leave.

Natura takes a bath to pass on Body Shop stink

14 Nov 2023

The Brazilian beauty giant is selling the shower gel retailer for around $260 mln six years after buying it from L’Oréal for $1.1 bln. The 80% price discount reflects the eco-friendly brand’s loss of relevance. For buyer Aurelius, restoring glow requires applying a lot of polish.

Body Shop sale may give Natura skin-deep makeover

30 Aug 2023

After offloading Aesop for top dollars, the Brazilian beauty giant may struggle to fetch the cosmetics brand’s original $1 bln price tag in a sale. The M&A spree reversal will simplify Natura’s structure. But sprucing up its surviving Avon arm and other labels looks hard.

Saudi pays rich but logical price for Vale metals

28 Jul 2023

The kingdom is buying one-tenth of the $66 bln Brazilian miner’s nickel and copper arm. The $26 bln valuation on Vale’s base metals unit is steep, but cheaper than a full takeover. It also acts as a down payment on Saudi’s efforts to become an energy transition industrial hub.

Investors can discount IMF’s emerging-market gloom

21 Apr 2023

The multilateral lender has sounded a now-traditional warning about the financial distress facing emerging economies. Yet these markets have navigated rising US interest rates surprisingly well. Deep reforms mean there may be more good news to come, argues Felix Martin.

Three carry trades for a new monetary policy era

27 Jan 2023

Central banks’ moves mean that investors borrowing money in yen and placing it in U.S. assets – a once-popular “carry trade” – are no longer onto a sure-fire winner. They can do better by shorting the euro and investing in Mexico, Brazil or Hungary.

Brazil gives flagging climate fight a timely boost

31 Oct 2022

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat Jair Bolsonaro in the Latin American state’s presidential election. He could curb deforestation that makes the country a big greenhouse gas emitter. It’s a bright spot in a year when public and private sector momentum on climate change has slowed.

Brazil can buoy Sea’s growth ambitions

28 Oct 2022

The Singaporean games-to-payments group is exiting smaller countries and cutting costs to satisfy impatient investors. But it is making progress in the fast-growing Latin American market, where losses are narrowing. A $6.5 bln cash pile suggests Sea can stay the course.

Nubank becomes LatAm’s biggest, and riskiest, bank

9 Dec 2021

An IPO worth above $40 bln tops even Itaú Unibanco. At roughly 10 times tangible book value it’s a pricey bet that a Warren Buffett-backed Brazilian fintech can disrupt the region’s market before established players react, without missteps, and with immunity from economic perils.

Big miners are steeled against falling iron ore

21 Sep 2021

The mineral’s price has collapsed in two months, bucking inflationary trends. Rising supply, China’s cooling economy and changing consumer spending habits portend a further decline. Capital discipline and diversification will cushion the blow for BHP, Rio and Fortescue.

Guinea coup is win for Australia and Brazil

6 Sep 2021

Soldiers have deposed the West African nation’s president, Alpha Condé. Besides disruption to bauxite exports, the upheaval may upend development of the Simandou mine’s 8.6 billion tonnes of iron ore deposits, capable of adding 10% to global output. Rival diggers will be smiling.

Surf ‘n’ turf is juicy ESG starter for M&A feast

17 Aug 2021

Brazilian meatpacker JBS made a curious second bid for Tasmanian salmon farmer Huon after mining billionaire Andrew Forrest raised environmental and animal-welfare concerns. Buyers often come ready to clash over price, not sustainability. Add a new chapter to the deal cookbook.

Guest view: How companies can cut deforestation

20 May 2021

Yet more destruction of the Amazon last year raises climate-change fears. Former Brazil Finance Minister Joaquim Levy argues the key to ending this economically unsound treatment of rainforests lies in a mix of animal-tracing tech, integrated farming and better use of pastures.