Latin American private banking: Advisers sceptical of highs
Goldman Sachs gets serious in Brazil
"I believe in Pactual’s competence but the bank has been through a huge stress – getting sold by UBS and acquired by BTG. This process isn’t easy and you normally come out of these things with scars," says one senior private banker in Brazil. Another adds: "They are clearly building a good private banking team at BTG Pactual but they seem more focused on investment banking at the moment."
But co-heads Rogério Pessoa and Renato Cohn are keen to dispel these rumours and show they are stronger than ever. With $14 billion of assets under management and plans to grow by at least 25% this year, the group is ambitious.
"We have taken the best things we learnt from the UBS model but also reverted back to Pactual practices. Hopefully we have the best bits of both banks now," says Pessoa. "For example, under UBS Pactual we were not a partnership but now we have reverted to a partnership, with the partners’ money invested alongside our clients’ money. Now the interests of our clients and the partners are 100% aligned.