Heavy tropical rain hit São Paulo, Brazil’s main financial centre, before its Carnival event. Paulistanos seemed to be taken by surprise by the deluge that regularly causes traffic chaos around the Faria Lima financial district at this time of year. Similarly, on the financial scene, investment bankers feel that the dry season is over for the Brazilian initial public offering (IPO) market following a stellar year in the equity markets at the BM&FBovespa stock exchange.
“The drought has come to an end but that does not mean rain is pouring down yet,” says Eduardo Miras, Morgan Stanley co-head of investment banking in Brazil. Healthcare company Alliar re-opened Brazil’s IPO season in October 2016, bringing an end to more than a year of inactivity. At least three companies have since filed for an IPO at the Comissão de Valores Mobiliários, the local security and exchange commission. Several others have announced similar plans, most of them informally, since the beginning of the 2017. But in the meantime, 25 companies have pulled out of BM&FBovespa in the past three years, including 13 that delisted in 2016.
