Angel Santodomingo Martell was expecting 2020 to be tough. He didn’t know it would be this tough.
Speaking to II, the bank executive recalled how Banco Santander Brasil, where he has served as chief financial officer since 2014, had began to position itself more conservatively last fall.
“Back in September last year, we publicly said that we saw pockets in the economy — we thought we should stay back a bit,” he said. “We wanted to control risk. Obviously, we didn’t know about Covid-19.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, there were more than 5.4 million documented cases of Covid-19 globally, according to the World Health Organization, including over 363,000 in Brazil. The Latin American country has in recent weeks emerged as one of the latest hot spots for the contagious and potentially fatal disease, with the number of reported cases growing rapidly over the month of May.
Across Latin America, executives from sectors ranging from financial services to construction report major disruptions to their businesses and an urgent need to adapt to a world that will likely be permanently altered by the coronavirus pandemic. In Mexico, for example, construction materials company CEMEX has instituted a number of new protocols to ensure proper social distancing and hygiene among workers, including launching an app for employees to self-report any health symptoms they may be experiencing.
Back in Brazil, electricity provider ENGIE Brasil Energia has had to figure out how to literally keep the lights on as the country’s largest electricity producers. “As a company that provides an essential service, we have implemented a series of initiatives to offer the necessary protection to our employees and the continuity of our activities, in line with the recommendations of health agencies,” Eduardo Sattamini, the utility company’s CEO, said by email.
Banco Santander has similarly sought to keep money flowing through the economy in a time when businesses and individuals need it most. “We have moved from ten years ago with banks being the problem to now banks being the solution,” Martell says. “And that is an important way of looking at the bank sector as what we should be, which is a provider for the economy to be able to grow.”
Click here to read about how Martell and other top-ranking members of II’s Latin America Executive Team have responded to the coronavirus pandemic — and what the world will look like afterwards.
To determine the members of Institutional Investor’s 2020 Latin America Executive Team, we surveyed buy-side analysts, money managers, and sell-side researchers at securities firms and financial institutions that cover the region, including those who cast and received votes in this year’s Latin America and All-Brazil Research Team surveys. Survey results reflect the opinions of 604 investment professionals at 308 financial services firms.
We asked the participants to rate the chief executive officers, chief financial officers, and investor relations professionals at the companies in their coverage universes. CEOs were rated on their credibility, leadership, and quality of communication. CFOs were rated on their ability in capital allocation, financial stewardship, and quality of communication. For the Investor Relations programs, companies were rated on the following attributes: productivity of NDR/RD shows/conferences; conference calls; business and market knowledge; responsiveness; authority and credibility; and timing, consistency and granularity of financial disclosure. All votes are weighted by rating (five being excellent; one being average) and aggregated to create the CEO, CFO and IR Program rankings. Additionally, voters were asked to rate the companies’ ESG metrics and investor day.
The overall rankings in each of the categories —CEO, CFO, IR Professional, IR Company, ESG, Analyst Day — are based on combined buy- and sell-side votes. Separate rosters (buy side, sell side) are also available for each award classification.
Honored Companies are companies who achieved at least one published position. To earn the designation of Most Honored Company, a company must achieve a weighted score of 22 or more points across the six categories in the combined, buy-side and sell-side rankings, wherein each first-place position is worth three points; second place, two; and third place, one.
Mid-cap and small-cap rankings were produced as we recognized companies with less than $10 billion in market capitalization. In the mid-cap and small-cap rankings, a sector must have at least four companies nominated to publish. To achieve Most Honored Company in the mid-cap and small-cap ranking, companies must receive a weighted score of eight or more points across the six categories in the combined ranking.
To be eligible for inclusion on the 2020 Latin America Executive Team, a company must be headquartered or have operational or executive headquarters in the region. We keep confidential the identities of the survey respondents to ensure their continuing cooperation. Voters must meet eligibility requirements, and winners must achieve a minimum vote count. All ballots are subject to review by our Research Operations Group.