Dubai – The Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex) promoted on Wednesday (20) a seminar for investors in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, as part of the trade delegation to the Middle East that is taking place this week and has already been to Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia. The delegation, which includes representatives of 30 companies, has the support of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce.
The objective of the conference was to attract local investors to projects in Brazil. Vladimir Miranda Abreu, a partner at law firm Tozzini Freire, from São Paulo, spoke about foreign investment legislation in the country, including tax matters; Robert Linton, from the Brazilian Association of Private Equity and Venture Capital (ABVCAP), presented a framework of funds for investment in share capital and mutual funds for investment in emerging companies; and the partner at BR Investimentos asset management, Jones Gomes, showed the funds his company manages, in areas like education, logistics and infrastructure.
Amber Israr, senior vice-president of investment bank MAS Clear Sight, liked the presentation, but said that it was focussed mainly on general aspects in the sector in Brazil, and that it could have gone deeper in the presentation of existing opportunities in the country, focussed specifically on funds. She said that the company does not yet do business in Brazil “but that it recommends the Bric to investors”, said the executive, referring to the group of countries that includes Brazil, Russia, China and India. The main company interest is in papers.
Malik Imran Yunus, also senior vice president at MAS, needs detailed information to be able to advise clients regarding where to invest, and that includes knowing how certain sectors and regions may behave over the next five years.
Rafi Khan, senior vice president at Century Financial Brokers, a brokerage headquartered in Dubai, is also seeking opportunities in mutual funds and private equity, but he already has business with mutual funds that include investment in Brazil. “There are many people in the investment community who know of the force of Brazil, its natural resources and solidity. It is not something new,” he said.
To him, the country should no longer be denominated “emerging”, but “fully developed economy”. “They should remove this designation,” he said, stating an opinion that would certainly please the government of Brazil.
But not everybody has that knowledge of the country. Ahmed Al Ghareeb, general manager at Humaid Bin Rashid Al-Nuaimi Foundation for Human Development, a sovereign fund in Ajman, in the Emirates, accompanied the seminar to learn more information about the legal system and the Brazilian tax system, mainly to verify whether the inflow and outflow of capital is free. The organisation invests the financial return on educational projects in the emirate.
Aligning
The executive manager at Transcontinental Food Company, Mohamed Ali Mechraoui, which owns food brand Sam’s, was more interested in importing products from Brazil, but said he developed academic studies about the global foreign direct investment flow and found that Brazil “is very interesting”. “The emerging nations are looking at Brazil and Turkey as models for development,” he pointed out. “If the Arabs develop their relations with Brazil, it will be very lucrative for both parties,” he said.
In the same line, Neela Depala Robberstad, the managing director at Asaat, a food distributor, has much interest in import of Brazilian products, but said that the company is “open to new ideas”. “We are small enough to consider them,” he said. The company is medium.
*Translated by Mark Ament
