Reuters: Mergers News: BTG Pactual,Colombia broker in tie-up talks-source

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BTG Pactual,Colombia broker in tie-up talks-source Apr 4th 2012, 22:35 Wed Apr 4, 2012 6:35pm EDT * BTG Pactual, rivals in talks with Bolsa y Renta, source says * Bogotá-based Bolsa y Renta is Colombia's No. 5 brokerage * Comes as Brazilian banks seek to grow in the Andean country By Guillermo Parra-Bernal SAO PAULO, April 4 (Reuters) - BTG Pactual, Brazil's biggest independent investment bank, is in talks to buy a majority stake in securities firm Bolsa y Renta, Colombia's second-largest equity brokerage, a source with knowledge of the situation said on Wednesday. Bogotá-based Bolsa y Renta, controlled by the Vargas family and shareholders including Chief Executive Juan Luis Franco, is also speaking to other potential partners, said the source, who declined to be cited because the talks are in an early stage. The source did not elaborate on potential buyers or a price. Calls to Bolsa y Renta's media office were not immediately answered. BTG Pactual, which is based in São Paulo, will not comment on the matter. Since it was formed it 2009, BTG Pactual has been on a deal-making frenzy in Brazil and abroad as Chief Executive André Esteves, also the bank's majority partner, strives to turn the firm into the largest investment bank in emerging markets by the end of the decade. A move by BTG Pactual, which expects to list its shares later this month in São Paulo and Amsterdam in a $2.2 billion initial public offering, comes after the $600 million acquisition of Chile's Celfin Capital. Brazilian rivals including state-controlled Banco do Brasil are also on the lookout for banking assets in Colombia. This year, Itaú BBA, the investment-banking unit of financial behemoth Itaú Unibanco Holding, won regulatory approval to open a wholesale banking unit in Colombia. Colombia is South America's second-most populous country and, like Brazil, has a diversified economy dependent on oil, coal, agricultural commodities and manufacturing. Last year, Colombia's economy became South America's second largest after Brazil. Bolsa y Renta, which was founded in 1953, has 265 employees and assets worth about $36 million. The brokerage, which last year began to build up an investment banking unit, earned $7.7 million in 2011, according to data found on its Website. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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