Finance and Economics；Better Than Goldman? A Brazilian star heads to marketThe announcement on March 1st that BTG Pactual plans an initial public offering (IPO) came after weeks of speculation.André Esteves, the Brazilian investment bank's chief executive, had said before that an IPO was a matter of when, not if.A private deal in late 2010 with sovereign-wealth funds and rich families,including the Agnellis and the Rothschilds (both of whom have links with The Economist),had brought in $1.8 billion in return for 18% of the firm.But BTG has spent at least $1.5 billion on a series of takeovers in the past five months, eating up capital.The most recent deal, a cash-and-shares purchase of Celfin Capital, a Chilean brokerage, implied a valuation of $14.8 billion.The moment to list, it seemed, had arrived.With more cash, BTG will be able to continue its shopping spree without overstretch,applauds Ceres Lisboa of Moody's, a ratings agency.And Brazil could do with its own investment bank: global players such as UBS and Credit Suissehave been active there for some time but have pulled back because of the financial crisis.“BTG has advantages right now,” says Ms Lisboa, “because it has Brazil expertise and a relative lack of global exposure.”Mr Esteves's story is not quite rags to riches but is still impressive.
