Fortune favours the favelas

Naarden, February 10, 2012 - The Financial Times gave special attention to the emerging middle class of Brazil. Cyrte director Peter van Rooyen is quoted on Cyrte's strategy of investing in this new emerging middle class. 

by Joseph Leahy

The Financial Times describes how the creation of this new group of middle class consumers is leading to the emergence of new companies and even new industries across a range of sectors, from telecommunications, housing, consumer goods and education to travel and entertainment. Groups, backed by an array of foreign investors, are queueing up to give them what they want. Cyrte is quoted as one of these groups:

“We believe in investing in structural change and that’s something that you see in Latin America, especially Brazil,” says Peter van Rooyen, of Cyrte Investments, a Netherlands-based investment house with a Latin American fund. Mr Van Rooyen cites his fund’s investments in Brazilian telecoms and in T4F Entretenimento, a company that organises live music, from U2 and AC/DC to Lady Gaga concerts, as an example of how Cyrte has been mining these themes. 

Cyrte has also invested in the Williams Formula One team, which has the Brazilian Bruno Senna, nephew of the great Ayrton Senna, as one of its drivers. “When low-income earners get an extra real in their pocket they start to move from necessities to experiences. This year, for instance, 10m-11m Brazilians will travel for the first time,” says Van rooyen. Subscribers to Financial Times can read the entire article here.

Source: Financial Times, February 8, 2012