The bright continent - FT.com:
'via Blog this'
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
The Rancher Turned Power Broker
The rancher turned power-broker
Kátia Abreu has come a long way since she cut her hair short to avoid provoking male attention. “Make me look beautiful rather than brainy,” jokes the rancher and senior Brazilian senator with the cameraman, running a brush through her now shoulder-length hair. “I’m a woman after all.”
It is a typical comment from a woman who knows she operates in the forbiddingly male world of ranching. As head of Brazil’s agricultural caucus, Ms Abreu is among the most powerful people in the country. And as the sole daughter growing up among seven brothers, she was almost raised for the role. Yet it was a stroke of fate that set her on the path to her ranching wealth and political career. “My life has been very improvised,” says the 50-year-old, toying with a large gold ring on her finger.
More
ON THIS TOPIC
- Brazil GDP turns negative
- Brazil mobile groups pay $1.3bn in auction
- Micro-insurers flock to Brazil’s favelas
- Brazil inflation falls near two-year low
THE MONDAY INTERVIEW
Twenty-five years ago, long before Brazilian agriculture became the global economic force that it is today, Ms Abreu had two young children, another on the way, and was studying to become a psychologist, “like my mother”. Then her rancher husband died of a heart attack, and she had to think again.
“In Brazil, when anyone sees a rundown farm, they say it belongs to a widow,” she says. “I knew nothing about farming then. I only knew I didn’t want that to happen to me.”
That was when Ms Abreu sheared off her hair. Since then, her business has grown to three farms, covering 14,000 hectares in central Tocantins state on the vast Brazilian cerrado, or high savannah.
Her political rise has been equally vertiginous. Supporters look to her as the spirited defender of the powerhouse Brazilian agro-industry – a sector that accounts for a quarter of the national economy, a third of its jobs and more than $95bn of exports. For some, it also represents the best hope for meeting the 70 per cent rise in food production the UN estimates the world needs by 2050.
Among opponents, however, she is known as “Lil’ Miss Deforestation” for championing a new forest code that has coloured the build-up to this week’s Rio +20 summit on sustainable development. Critics say the bill, partially vetoed by President Dilma Rousseff who wants Brazil to present a “green face” to the world, forgives farmers who have cut down rainforest illegally, giving them a green light to get their chainsaws buzzing again.
Be that as it may, Ms Abreu does not come across as the slash-and-burn rancher of popular imagination. Sitting in the Financial Times office, fresh from speaking at one London conference on sustainable agriculture and en route to another in France, she wears a pinstriped suit, red shirt and black high-heels – although it is easy to imagine her in cowboy boots and jeans, whooping up her farmer constituents with backcountry sass.
The CV
● Born:Feb 2 1962 in Goiânia
● Education: Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, Catholic University of Goiás
● Career: Farmer, politician, psychologist
● 1987 Takes over late husband’s farm in Tocantins state
● 1994 Elected president of Gurupi rural union, Tocantins state
● 1996 Elected president of Agriculture and Livestock Federation, Tocantins state
● 2000-02 Substitute congresswoman
● 2002 Elected as congresswoman
● 2006 Elected senator for Tocantins state, with the centre-right Democrats party
● 2008 Elected president of the National Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA)
● 2011-present Re-elected CNA president
● Family: one daughter and two sons
● Education: Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, Catholic University of Goiás
● Career: Farmer, politician, psychologist
● 1987 Takes over late husband’s farm in Tocantins state
● 1994 Elected president of Gurupi rural union, Tocantins state
● 1996 Elected president of Agriculture and Livestock Federation, Tocantins state
● 2000-02 Substitute congresswoman
● 2002 Elected as congresswoman
● 2006 Elected senator for Tocantins state, with the centre-right Democrats party
● 2008 Elected president of the National Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA)
● 2011-present Re-elected CNA president
● Family: one daughter and two sons
Having jostled up through the sleepy ranks of rural unions, she became a congresswoman in the early 2000s and then a senator in 2006 for the opposition centre-right Democrats party. “Brazilians tend to confuse the right with the military dictatorship,” she comments.
Her biggest triumph, though, came in 2008 when she became the first woman to head the National Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock, the rural lobby that is the largest cross-party block in Congress and a key power broker in Ms Rousseff’s government.
Ms Abreu says that she has risen “because I am vehement, well-prepared and articulate”. Her religious and tax-cutting political instincts are certainly robust, in the Texan manner (“I have great faith, am very obstinate and love my work”).
She is also proud of having once defeated a tax proposal by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the wildly popular former president. “I didn’t know anything about economics before, but it was the only bill Lula ever lost,” she says. “I lost seven kilograms through stress.”
Although known in Brasília by the nickname “Senator Ivete Sangalo”, after the pop musician who is Brazil’s answer to Shakira, such determination also speaks of Ms Abreu’s ability to master the intricacies of any brief.
Yet although she can whip up statistics in a wink, it is hard to pin down quite what Ms Abreu stands for. Besides her support for the controversial new forest code – she says the old one, although enlightened, “was unenforceable” – it may simply be to act as a flag-waver for the better parts of Brazilian agriculture.
For example, to its largely unrecognised credit, the country has slashed deforestation rates to a third of what they were 15 years ago – although more than 6,000 sq km is still cut down every year.
“Brazilian farmers don’t need more land, the challenge is to make what they have more productive,” she says by way of distancing the industry from the controversial practice. Brazil produces seven times more grains from just twice the land it did in 1998, largely thanks to the development of the cerrado. Ploughed with lime, this scrubby hinterland has become a magnet for foreign investors such as Jacob Rothschild, who have financed high-tech farms that span vast horizons.
Contrary to common perception, such farms are also hundreds if not thousands of miles from the Amazon, and most of the soya they sell is subject to a moratorium that prohibits international buyers from purchasing crops grown on deforested land.
Indeed, it is because of such schemes that Brazil’s hardscrabble small farmers, who make up the majority of the 5.2m rural landholders, are the biggest cause of deforestation. Giant outfits, which account for just 10 per cent of properties but three-quarters of cleared areas, meanwhile have sanctionable links to international consumers. (Greenpeace this month accused JBS, the world’s largest meat producer, of sourcing beef from the Amazon. JBS denies the charge and is suing Greenpeace.) “It’s not the big farmers who need my help but the small ones – the squeezed lower classes with no money,” says Ms Abreu.
It is a constant refrain. Brazilian farmers want to replant deforested areas, she claims, “but who will pay for it?” If Europeans want non-genetically modified crops, which require more pesticides, “we are happy to supply, but of course they will have to pay”. Stressing that “someone always has to pay” might make for an unromantic view of forest conservation – or “sustainability” as Ms Abreu calls it. But it is also a realistic viewpoint in a country that, for all its riches, still has many poor.
“Do you know what is the most sensitive organ in the human body?” she asks. “The pocket.”
Ms Abreu, the widow who made good, knows whereof she speaks.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012. You may share using our article tools.
Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
Post your own comment
No comments yet
Editor's Choice
Columnists
Most popular in Management
exec-appointments.com
- Manager – Analytic Infrastructure, Risk Architecture Division, RSD
Financial Services Authority - Health Consulting Director/Sector Lead
Leadership Role in Health Sector - Chief Internal Auditor
Home Office - Trading & Broking Assistants
Vitol
Multimedia
Tools
- Portfolio
- FT Lexicon
- FT clippings
- Currency converter
- MBA rankings
- MBA Newslines
- Today's newspaper
- FT press cuttings
- FT ePaper
- Economic calendar
Updates
Monday, June 18, 2012
A Dream With My Beloved Rio de Janeiro
Last night I had a long and interesting dream about Rio de Janeiro. I was at San Francisco International Airport in a long line trying to board a plane to Rio de Janeiro. I had decided to go and live there for the rest of my life. I was sad that Elena would not come along. Then for some reason I was "teleported" away from the airport to a vacant field nearby and all of my carry on luggage was missing. I was struggling to get back to the airport, find my carry on luggage and make the flight. Then I awakened and it was time to get up.
I spent some of the happiest years of my life in Rio de Janeiro despite the fact that it was during Brasil's military government. I remember approaching Rio for the first time in a plane. The worst shock was all of the slums I saw from the air. When I landed a customs officers stole things from my suitcase and a cab driver cheated me out of $50.00. I went to Copacabana and checked into the Acapulco Hotel that was to be my home for a long time. Despite the jet lag I walked around for a long time. I fell in love with Rio instantly. It's a love that continues to this day.
Rio is glamorous. Rio has incredible people who are always happy and optimistic despite a life that is really very hard for most. Rio has great food and culture. Rio has incredible sites like the Sugar Loaf and the Corcovado.Rio has incredible beaches. Rio is over 500 years old and has deep roots and traditions. Rio also still has poverty and some really heavy violent crime. You learn quickly to be "street wise" in order to survive.
Back in 1991 I was offered an apartment right on Copacabana for about $26,000 US. I turned it down. If I had taken the deal I would be a rich man now. If you want to retire to Rio you need to bring at least $500,000 US to buy a one-bedroom condominium. Your medical insurance will be cheaper than the US but not much cheaper. Food will be just as expensive as the US. Cars and electronics will be more expensive.
But if you really love Rio none of that matters.
Elena does not love Rio and would never go there so it's out for me. But I still go every year to get back in touch with one of the happiest parts of my life and the city that I will always love so much.
The dream was telling me that it was not meant for me to go to Rio and live because I would lose Elena.
I spent some of the happiest years of my life in Rio de Janeiro despite the fact that it was during Brasil's military government. I remember approaching Rio for the first time in a plane. The worst shock was all of the slums I saw from the air. When I landed a customs officers stole things from my suitcase and a cab driver cheated me out of $50.00. I went to Copacabana and checked into the Acapulco Hotel that was to be my home for a long time. Despite the jet lag I walked around for a long time. I fell in love with Rio instantly. It's a love that continues to this day.
Rio is glamorous. Rio has incredible people who are always happy and optimistic despite a life that is really very hard for most. Rio has great food and culture. Rio has incredible sites like the Sugar Loaf and the Corcovado.Rio has incredible beaches. Rio is over 500 years old and has deep roots and traditions. Rio also still has poverty and some really heavy violent crime. You learn quickly to be "street wise" in order to survive.
Back in 1991 I was offered an apartment right on Copacabana for about $26,000 US. I turned it down. If I had taken the deal I would be a rich man now. If you want to retire to Rio you need to bring at least $500,000 US to buy a one-bedroom condominium. Your medical insurance will be cheaper than the US but not much cheaper. Food will be just as expensive as the US. Cars and electronics will be more expensive.
But if you really love Rio none of that matters.
Elena does not love Rio and would never go there so it's out for me. But I still go every year to get back in touch with one of the happiest parts of my life and the city that I will always love so much.
The dream was telling me that it was not meant for me to go to Rio and live because I would lose Elena.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Slim Buys Stake In Nationalized YPF
June 15, 2012 1:04 am
Slim buys stake in nationalised YPF
The family of Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim has bought an 8.4 per cent stake in newly nationalised Argentine oil company YPF, which last week said it was hunting for strategic partners.
The purchase of the class D shares was announced via a US stock market filing.
No one at the company or representing Mr Slim was available for comment.
It was unclear whether his family, which made the purchase via two companies he controls – Inmobiliaria Carso and Grupo Financiero Inbursa – bought the shares on the open market or whether they used to belong to the Eskenazi family, former partner to Spain’s Repsol in YPF.
Inmobiliaria Carso and Grupo Financiero Inbursa took 1.8 per cent and 6.6 per cent respectively.
Miguel Galuccio, YPF’s new chief executive, said Mr Slim’s decision to invest in the company, which he called a “long-term purchase”, was “a clear signal to the international financial market that they see YPF as a solid company with good growth potential”.
He also described Mr Slim as someone who “understands and is a protagonist of the international oil market. This is also a great display of confidence in Argentina and the company’s new project”.
The Eskenazis lost their 25.46 per cent stake after defaulting on loans used to buy it.
Argentina nationalised 51 per cent of YPF last month, slashing Repsol’s holding to 6.43 per cent. It has since boosted that to 12 per cent after taking back shares pledged as collateral against loans made to the Eskenazi family’s Petersen Energía and retained one seat on the company’s new board.
A syndicate of banks headed by Credit Suisse made other loans to the Eskenazis and has taken over shares pledged against those loans, which Petersen Energía had been paying off via dividends, a revenue source that dried up in the nationalisation.
YPF’s American Depository Shares in New York closed up 8.13 per cent at $11.3. In Buenos Aires, YPF ended 2.71 per cent up at 68.3 pesos.
The news of a major international partner is a coup for the Argentine government, which has been at pains to stress that investors have not been put off by the nationalisation. Mr Galuccio announced last week that the company planned to invest $7bn a year for the next five years to boost flagging production. He said he was hunting for strategic partners, be they financial or technical or from the industry, as YPF faces the challenge of developing vast shale oil and gas reserves.
However the emergence of Mr Slim, the world’s richest man who owns one of the world’s biggest mobile phone companies in América Móvil, on the shareholder rolls comes as a surprise. Although he had been planning investments of $1bn in Argentina in 2012, they had been expected to be in the telecoms sector.
“I think this is a very positive sign. YPF will have a very powerful man behind the company as a big shareholder. This is a sign that he is buying for the long term,” said one analyst in New York who asked not to be named.
The purchase of the class D shares was announced via a US stock market filing.
More
On this story
- beyondbrics Slim wades into the YPF pool
- New YPF chief aims for production rise
- beyondbrics YPF: so what’s the game plan?
- Repsol keeps seat on YPF board
- Banks poised to seize YPF stake
On this topic
- Repsol declares YPF partner in default
- Repsol warns rivals over investing in YPF
- Argentine rules hinder oil exploration
- Argentina woos Brazil over energy deal
IN Oil & Gas
It was unclear whether his family, which made the purchase via two companies he controls – Inmobiliaria Carso and Grupo Financiero Inbursa – bought the shares on the open market or whether they used to belong to the Eskenazi family, former partner to Spain’s Repsol in YPF.
Inmobiliaria Carso and Grupo Financiero Inbursa took 1.8 per cent and 6.6 per cent respectively.
Miguel Galuccio, YPF’s new chief executive, said Mr Slim’s decision to invest in the company, which he called a “long-term purchase”, was “a clear signal to the international financial market that they see YPF as a solid company with good growth potential”.
He also described Mr Slim as someone who “understands and is a protagonist of the international oil market. This is also a great display of confidence in Argentina and the company’s new project”.
The Eskenazis lost their 25.46 per cent stake after defaulting on loans used to buy it.
Argentina nationalised 51 per cent of YPF last month, slashing Repsol’s holding to 6.43 per cent. It has since boosted that to 12 per cent after taking back shares pledged as collateral against loans made to the Eskenazi family’s Petersen Energía and retained one seat on the company’s new board.
A syndicate of banks headed by Credit Suisse made other loans to the Eskenazis and has taken over shares pledged against those loans, which Petersen Energía had been paying off via dividends, a revenue source that dried up in the nationalisation.
YPF’s American Depository Shares in New York closed up 8.13 per cent at $11.3. In Buenos Aires, YPF ended 2.71 per cent up at 68.3 pesos.
The news of a major international partner is a coup for the Argentine government, which has been at pains to stress that investors have not been put off by the nationalisation. Mr Galuccio announced last week that the company planned to invest $7bn a year for the next five years to boost flagging production. He said he was hunting for strategic partners, be they financial or technical or from the industry, as YPF faces the challenge of developing vast shale oil and gas reserves.
However the emergence of Mr Slim, the world’s richest man who owns one of the world’s biggest mobile phone companies in América Móvil, on the shareholder rolls comes as a surprise. Although he had been planning investments of $1bn in Argentina in 2012, they had been expected to be in the telecoms sector.
“I think this is a very positive sign. YPF will have a very powerful man behind the company as a big shareholder. This is a sign that he is buying for the long term,” said one analyst in New York who asked not to be named.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012. You may share using our article tools.
Petrobras Cuts Production Targets
June 15, 2012 12:13 am
Petrobras cuts production targets
Petrobras has slashed its production targets under a $236.5bn investment plan as Brazil’s state-run oil company struggles to adapt to government policies affecting its operations.
The Rio de Janeiro-based company said on Thursday that under its new five-year plan it would produce about 5.7m barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2020 – 11 per cent less than it forecast last year.
In spite of making one of the world’s largest offshore oil discoveries in 2007, Petrobras has fallen out of favour with investors as the Brazilian government has leaned on the company to further the country’s wider development goals.
Domestic caps on fuel prices to curb inflation have not only stopped Petrobras from benefiting from rising global oil prices, but have forced it to sell its imported fuel at a loss.
At $236.5bn, the investment programme is still larger than Petrobras’s $224.7bn 2011-15 plan. Under the new 2012-16 guidelines, one of the world’s biggest corporate investment plans, Petrobras will invest 60 per cent of total capital expenditures in exploration and production, compared with 57 per cent in the previous plan.
However, analysts took comfort on Thursday in the company’s continued focus on the more profitable areas of exploration and production, rather than refining.
Rather than a more pessimistic outlook, some put down the lower production targets to the more realistic stance of Maria das Graças Foster, the new chief executive.
Petrobras shares have fallen about 30 per cent since this year’s peak in February.
“They didn’t roll back the [capital expenditure] and the idea that they would pull back on investments when the economy is slowing down just isn’t realistic,” he said.
Its preferred shares, the company’s most popular class of stock, fell almost 4 per cent in intraday trading on Thursday to R$18.20 – the biggest one-day decline in nearly a month.
Petrobras last month reported that net income had fallen 16 per cent in the first quarter to R$9.2bn ($4.5bn) from R$11bn in the previous year after high costs eroded profits.
The company has been subjected to a 65 per cent local content rule, which has raised its production costs, and has been prohibited from raising wholesale petrol and diesel prices in Brazil since 2008.
However, Edison Lobão, Brazil’s energy minister, recently indicated the government is prepared to raise the cap if international oil prices reach as high as $130 a barrel.
“The government is sensitive to the fact that Petrobras is becoming overstretched,” said Christopher Garman, an analyst at Eurasia Group. “When push comes to shove, the one thing the government is likely to give ground on is gasoline prices.”
The Rio de Janeiro-based company said on Thursday that under its new five-year plan it would produce about 5.7m barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2020 – 11 per cent less than it forecast last year.
More
On this story
- beyondbrics Brazil
- Brazil inflation falls near two-year low
- Rising costs cut Petrobras profits
- Lex Petrobras
- Petrobras may be liable for spill damages
On this topic
- Oil leak found in state-run field off Brazil
- Local supply policy tests Petrobras
- Petrobras quarterly profit down 52%
- Petrobras sells $7bn of corporate bonds
IN Oil & Gas
Domestic caps on fuel prices to curb inflation have not only stopped Petrobras from benefiting from rising global oil prices, but have forced it to sell its imported fuel at a loss.
At $236.5bn, the investment programme is still larger than Petrobras’s $224.7bn 2011-15 plan. Under the new 2012-16 guidelines, one of the world’s biggest corporate investment plans, Petrobras will invest 60 per cent of total capital expenditures in exploration and production, compared with 57 per cent in the previous plan.
However, analysts took comfort on Thursday in the company’s continued focus on the more profitable areas of exploration and production, rather than refining.
Rather than a more pessimistic outlook, some put down the lower production targets to the more realistic stance of Maria das Graças Foster, the new chief executive.
Petrobras shares have fallen about 30 per cent since this year’s peak in February.
“They didn’t roll back the [capital expenditure] and the idea that they would pull back on investments when the economy is slowing down just isn’t realistic,” he said.
Its preferred shares, the company’s most popular class of stock, fell almost 4 per cent in intraday trading on Thursday to R$18.20 – the biggest one-day decline in nearly a month.
Petrobras last month reported that net income had fallen 16 per cent in the first quarter to R$9.2bn ($4.5bn) from R$11bn in the previous year after high costs eroded profits.
The company has been subjected to a 65 per cent local content rule, which has raised its production costs, and has been prohibited from raising wholesale petrol and diesel prices in Brazil since 2008.
However, Edison Lobão, Brazil’s energy minister, recently indicated the government is prepared to raise the cap if international oil prices reach as high as $130 a barrel.
“The government is sensitive to the fact that Petrobras is becoming overstretched,” said Christopher Garman, an analyst at Eurasia Group. “When push comes to shove, the one thing the government is likely to give ground on is gasoline prices.”
BTG Pactual Takes Over Colombian Brokerage
June 14, 2012 11:11 pm
BTG Pactual takes over Colombian brokerage
Brazil’s BTG Pactual has strengthened its position as a pan-Latin American investment bank with the purchase of Bolsa y Renta, a Colombian brokerage.
The deal, which has been under negotiation since last year, gives BTG access to the largest broker by trading volume in South America’s second-most populous country.
“The deal is an important step in the bank’s expansion throughout Latin America,” BTG said.
Although valued at just $52m, the deal follows BTG’s $600m takeover of Chile’s Celfín Capital last year.
The deals mean BTG, controlled by Brazilian billionaire banker André Esteves, has a firm presence in prosperous Andean countries including Chile, Colombia and Peru.
Bolsa y Renta has a $2.57bn wealth management portfolio. BTG’s wealth management area has portfolios totalling $23.1bn.
BTG held a $2bn initial public offering earlier this year that was the first significant listing in Brazil since July last year.
Its stock has lost 16 per cent of its value since its April 26 debut on the São Paulo stock exchange to finish on Thursday at R$26.10.
More
On this story
- beyondbrics Brazilian billionaires look north to Colombia
- BTG Pactual quarterly profits rise 140%
- BTG launches $1bn Africa buyout fund
- beyondbrics BTG Pactual, a Brazilian exception?
- beyondbrics BTG bulks up with Bodytech stake
On this topic
“The deal is an important step in the bank’s expansion throughout Latin America,” BTG said.
Although valued at just $52m, the deal follows BTG’s $600m takeover of Chile’s Celfín Capital last year.
The deals mean BTG, controlled by Brazilian billionaire banker André Esteves, has a firm presence in prosperous Andean countries including Chile, Colombia and Peru.
Bolsa y Renta has a $2.57bn wealth management portfolio. BTG’s wealth management area has portfolios totalling $23.1bn.
BTG held a $2bn initial public offering earlier this year that was the first significant listing in Brazil since July last year.
Its stock has lost 16 per cent of its value since its April 26 debut on the São Paulo stock exchange to finish on Thursday at R$26.10.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012. You may share using our article tools.
Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)