A sluggish economy, rising interest rates and growing political turmoil have whipsawed Brazil’s financial markets recently, creating a tough environment for the country’s leading investment managers.
BB Gestão de Recursos, an arm of state-owned Banco do Brasil, remains in first place on The Brazil 20, Institutional Investor’s annual ranking of the country’s largest money managers. The firm had assets of $235.7 billion at March 31, down from $242.2 billion a year earlier. It is followed by the fund management arms of Brazil’s other big banks: Itaú Unibanco Asset Management, Bradesco Asset Management and Caixa Econômica Federal.
Many big managers have seen their asset totals decline in dollar terms, reflecting the real’s 12.8 percent decline against the dollar in the 12 months ended March 31.
The difficult market conditions have generated growing demand for multistrategy hedge funds and inflation-
How The Ranking Was Compiled
Institutional Investor’s 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 the institutions filled out themselves. II staff refined these data through follow-up faxes, e-mails and telephone calls. All figures are in millions of U.S. dollars, as of March 31 of the given year. Where necessary, values were converted from reais using the exchange rate on the respective date.