Brazil’s Top Money Managers Emerge from Global Meltdown Although worldwide financial turmoil caused a 41.2 percent plunge in Brazil’s benchmark Bolsa de Valores, Mercadorias & Futuros Bovespa index in 2008, the effect on the nation’s top money management firms was muted because only a small portion of their total holdings is in equities, thanks to high interest rates that make fixed—income instruments more attractive to investors.
At BB Gestão de Recursos, which repeats in first place on the Brazil 20, Institutional Investor’s second annual ranking of the nation’s leading money managers, stocks account for only $19.5 billion of the firm’s $105.2 billion in total assets under management. That total is down 15.5 percent from one year earlier, in dollar terms; in local currency terms BB Gestão de Recursos and several other firms saw their assets under management increase in 2008. The real fell 24.5 percent against the dollar last year.
Caixa Econômica Federal, which rises one spot to take second place, saw its assets under management slip 12.4 percent in 2008, to $76.3 billion; of that total, only $2.8 billion is in equities. Banco Itaú, which merged with Unibanco Holdings and Unibanco–União de Bancos
How the Ranking Was Compiled Institutional Investor's second annual ranking identifies Brazil?s top 20 fund managers by assets. São Paulo?based Researcher Milena Mazzola Moreti compiled the ranking under the guidance of Senior Editor Jane B. Kenney, using data from questionnaires filled out by the institutions themselves. II refined this data through follow-up faxes, e-mails and telephone calls. All figures are in millions of dollars, as of December 31 of the respective year, and where necessary were converted from reais.