Brazil’s Banco BTG Pactual SA expects its assets under management to grow roughly 30% in 2019, says Reuters after an interview with the banks Chief Financial Officer, João Dantas.
Net inflows to its wealth and asset management businesses were 26 billion reais ($6.94 billion) in 2018. Total assets under management reached 327 billion reais in December.
The bank forecast follows new hirings for its asset management unit earlier this month, such as former Finance Minister Eduardo Guardia to be chief executive and a veteran BlackRock Inc portfolio manager to be head of equity funds.
Asset management firms in Brazil have benefited from the country’s gradual recovery and all-time low interest rates, which tend to push investors into investments with higher fees and out of plain vanilla government bond funds.
BTG reported a 4.4% decrease in fourth-quarter recurring profit to 711 million reais on February 25th, as expenses went up and offset higher revenues.
The bank’s total revenues rose 13% from the year-ago quarter to 1.549 billion reais, mainly driven by higher fees from asset and wealth management.
Dantas also foresaw the bank’s loan book will expand 30% in 2019, with disbursements to companies in Brazil, Colombia and Chile. Last year, it rose 32.9%, reaching 38 billion reais.
«We already see a higher demand for corporate loans and we have capital to support loan book growth,» the CFO said.
The Sao-Paulo based bank reported an annualized return on equity, a measure of profitability, of 15%, up 0.7 percentage points from the previous quarter.
Original Story: Reuters |Carolina Mandl
Photo: BTG Pactual
Edition:Prime Yield