ABN AMRO has been operating in Brazil, Latin America’s largest market, for nearly a century, but it was only about a decade ago that the business began to gather pace. “We’ve always been doing things in other Latin American countries, but for us this market is Brazil, Brazil and Brazil,” says Ron Teerlink, a member of the bank’s managing board with responsibility for Latin American operations.
In 1998, Dutch giant ABN AMRO acquired a majority stake in Banco Real, a long-established powerhouse among Brazilian financial institutions. Last September, it bought out Italian bank Banca Intesa’s remaining 3.86% holding in Banco Real for E233m. Intesa had acquired an 11.58% stake in Banco Real in 2003 in partial consideration for the sale that year of its Banco Sudameris Brasil to the Dutch bank.
