MONEY IS FLOWING into Latin America. Investment-grade, emerging market and high-yield investors are all looking to the region for assets and returns. Apart from a few weeks of outflows at the beginning of this year, the region’s equity and fixed-income markets have been flooded with money. So much so that currencies have risen, fears of currency wars have been voiced and governments have changed inward-investment policies.
The focus on Latin America has meant that companies have been able to generate interest from investors as never before. Roadshows for the lesser-known companies from the region generate audiences that the leading lights would have struggled to attract five years ago. Brazil’s Vale, is a good example. The iron-ore producer, again voted as the Latin American company with the second most convincing and coherent business strategy, announced its annual results on February 24 with simultaneous transmissions in Portuguese, Spanish and English broadcast via the company’s homepage. The spotlight shines brightly.
Perhaps Vale’s senior management could draw some comfort from the fact that reputations seem to be able to withstand a little criticism: Petrobras’s equity transaction in 2010 was far from universally popular with investors.
