Latin America’s biggest bank by assets, Banco do Brasil, plans the acquisition of banks in Chile and the United States and is holding negotiations to further expand in Peru, Colombia and Uruguay, said Aldemir Bendine the bank’s CEO.
Interviewed by daily financial newspaper Valor Econômico, Bendine said the bank targets to become a global conglomerate and is considering 17 possible acquisitions in the US including the purchase of at least two of them.
For this the Brazilian bank has hired Royal Bank of Canada to advice on the acquisition after an attempt in March to acquire Millennium BCP Bank failed for lack of a Federal Reserve license.
Banco do Brasil didn’t receive Financial Holding Status from the Fed until April 13, two weeks after a rival acquired Millennium. The new status, following an application in 2007, gives Banco do Brasil the same privileges in the U.S. as a local bank. (more…)
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With Lula’s popularity soaring at about 80%, these are not good times to be opposition in Brazil. While the Brazilian ruling coalition presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff consolidates her lead in opinion polls and is almost certain to win in the first round October 3, her main rival José Serra’s campaign seems to have fallen in disarray.
In effect in his latest criticisms Serra claims that a government can’t be managed by remote control or “under instructions”, much less “outsourced”, trying to convince the electorate that who really is going to run the show if Ms Rousseff is elected is her mentor and protector president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
However this has been precisely the real message of Lula, the most popular Brazilian president in the last six decades, who has gone out of his way to tell the people that Ms Rousseff is the continuation and guarantee of his administration.
“She’s me, dressed as a woman” and “we must give women a chance” has on occasions said the Brazilian president in a permanent effort to convince the electorate that they can trust the lady bureaucrat, former minister and cabinet chief but with no electoral experience.
“A candidate can’t have two faces. Commands are not outsourced. It’s imaginative, creative to think Brazil can be ruled by Lula out of the government. That’s not possible”, said Serra, former governor of the state of São Paulo addressing representatives from manufacturing industries. (more…)
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'In the dark': Dourados has been plunged into chaos after the mayor and 27 other officials were arrested on corruption charges
A city in Brazil is in chaos after all of the top officials in Dourados, including the mayor, deputy mayor and the leaders of the municipal council, were arrested on suspicion of corruption.
Located in the south-west of Brazil, near to the Paraguayan border, Dourados has a population of nearly 200,000 – and now those inhabitants have no official rulers.
Mayor Ari Artuzi and 27 other officials, including his wife Maria Aparecida de Freitas Artuzi, were arrested at dawn on Wednesday by the Federal Police who concluded an operation named Uragano.
Urgano was set up in order to catch top brass accused of bidding fraud, ongoing corruption and illicit association.
The warrants were issued by state and municipal courts and carried out Wednesday by some 200 Federal Police officers in a dawn raid.
Artuzi, 47, was elected mayor of Dourados two years ago, and is no stranger to the Federal Police. In July last year 44 people were arrested in Operation Owari, and Artuzi had been found to have broken banking secrecy. (more…)
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First, the good news: after years of indecision, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has finally confirmed that the city of São Paulo will host the opening game of the 2014 World Cup. In a brand new stadium owned by Corinthians.
Now the bad news. The stadium isn’t built yet – and is unlikely to be ready by Fifa’s 2012 deadline.
Corinthians’ decision to build a new stadium came just days before it celebrated its 100th anniversary and was a coup for the club’s president Andrés Sanchez. Corinthians is the only one of São Paulo’s big four clubs not to own its own ground – a major sore point.
The stadium was chosen by the CBF and approved by Fifa ahead of São Paulo FC’s 75,000-seater Morumbi stadium, notwithstanding the fact that the head of the CBF, Ricardo Texeira, hadn’t even seen a design model of it.
That’s the way things are done at the CBF, but it also represents a massive gamble by Texeira, who, perhaps not coincidentally, is an ally of Sanchez and an enemy of São Paulo FC’s president.
One major question mark concerns the price. The new stadium is to be built by Odebrecht, one of Brazil’s biggest construction companies, and is slated to cost 350m reais ($199m), a little more than half of what São Paulo would have to spend to reform its existing ground. (more…)
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Institute of Applied Economic Research
Most Brazilians are optimistic about the country’s economic performance, the country’s Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea) said Tuesday.
According to the Ipea’s Families’ Expectation Index, more than 58 percent of the Brazilian population believes the country’s economic situation will improve in the next 12 months. More than 55 percent believe the economic performance will improve in the next five years.
Brazilians with higher income, those under college education and citizens of African descent showed higher optimism.
In addition, higher optimism levels were found in the northern, northeastern and mid-western regions.
The Ipea attributed the rise of Brazilians’ optimism to the improvement of family financial situation. Some 73 percent of the families interviewed reported their finances are better off. (more…)
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