The sequence of increases in the Selic rate started in March 2021 by the BC (Central Bank), from the historic low of 2% to the current 13.25% per year, has increasingly increased the attractiveness of fixed income securities from the perspective of Brazilian investors.
Within the class, a recommendation that has stood out in the conversations of investment specialists with clients concerns IR (Income Tax) exempt securities for the individual investor.
With the rise in the basic interest rate, the market has offered investors bonds issued by large companies, without charging taxes, with a real return, that is, above inflation, around 6% per year.
Investment director at Santander Private Banking, Christiano Clemente says that the fixed income securities that have the tax benefit are divided into two large groups.
One of them is formed by letters of credit issued by financial institutions — LCIs (Immobiliary Letters of Credit), LCAs (Agricultural Letters of Credit) and LIGs (Guaranteed Real Estate Letters).
In addition to being exempt from IR, the first two are also covered by the FGC (Credit Guarantee Fund), an association that guarantees the amount contributed by the investor up to the limit of R$ 250 thousand per CPF and financial conglomerate, in case of eventual problems that the issuing institution may suffer along the way.
LIG, on the other hand, is not covered by the FGC, but has a double guarantee: from the financial institution that issued the bonds and a portfolio of real estate financing, which is separate from the bank’s equity. Therefore, if the bank goes bankrupt, this set of real estate credits has the role of honoring the payment commitment to investors.
Clemente adds that, in addition to financial bills, there are tax-exempt corporate bonds — CRIs (Real Estate Receivables Certificates), CRAs (Agribusiness Receivables Certificates) and incentivized infrastructure debentures.
In these cases, investments are not covered by the FGC or financial institutions, with the investor being subject to the credit risk of the company issuing the security.
Other fixed-income investments, such as CDBs (Bank Deposit Certificates), funds and government bonds, have the IR incidence according to the regressive table, in which IR rates decrease over time — they start at 22.5% and fall to 15 %, for terms ranging from six months to two years.
According to the specialist in Santander’s private banking area, the tax exemption, in addition to benefiting retail investors, also seeks to foster important sectors for the country’s economic dynamics.
“The tax exemption generates a lower cost for companies to have access to loans, which, in theory, makes the economy run more fluidly”, says Clemente.
Issuance volume in the year exceeds 2021 marks
B3 data show that IR-exempt investments have attracted the interest of a growing public since December 2020, closely following the process of rising the Selic rate.
“These bonds really attract the attention of individual investors, precisely because of the exemption,” says Camilla Dolle, head of fixed income at XP.
The XP expert says that the fact that letters of credit offer investors the added benefit of FGC coverage ends up weighing in on greater demand from retail investors for these assets.
Survey of the Brazilian stock exchange carried out at the request of the Sheet indicates that the exempt bond market recorded volumes in the first five months of the year well above those observed in the same period last year.
LCAs issued from January to May totaled BRL 115.3 billion, compared to BRL 52.4 billion in the same period in 2021. LCIs issued totaled BRL 70.7 billion, compared to BRL 33 billion last year, while LIGs totaled BRL 19.8 billion, compared to BRL 8.2 billion in the same period in 2021.
“As interest rates rise, naturally, fixed income becomes more attractive, and variable income, less”, says Fabio Zenaro, director of product, branch and new business at B3.
He adds that, within the group of exempt bonds, those aimed at agribusiness have stood out even more than their peers, in a challenging macroeconomic scenario, in which the agricultural sector has shown resilience in the face of strong demand on a global scale.
Among corporate bonds, the trend is repeated – the issuance of CRAs reached R$ 11.7 billion, from January to May, compared to R$ 8.5 billion in the same period of the previous year. In the case of CRIs, the volume was BRL 11.5 billion, compared to BRL 11.3 billion in the same period in 2021.
B3 data also indicate that, among infrastructure debentures, the total stock, which was BRL 136.4 billion in May 2021, jumped to BRL 192.5 billion in May this year.
Investment strategist at Itaú Unibanco responsible for private credit, Vanessa Müller states that, because the letters of credit are guaranteed by the FGC, and, on average, have shorter maturities, between one and two years, with the index in most cases the CDI, they end up getting more on the radar of the retail individual investor.
Among CDI letters of credit operations, says the expert, it is common for issues to come out at a percentage around 90% to 95% of the CDI, which, with the IR exemption, corresponds to the equivalent of something like 110% at 115% of the benchmark, considering investments with tax taxation.
In the case of certificates and debentures, in which there is no protection by the guarantee fund, and in which the terms are usually longer, with indexation mostly to the IPCA, individual investors with greater financial volume, from the high-income and private segments , tend to be more present in the offers, says the expert.
IPCA returns plus 6% per year
Executive responsible for the capital markets area of UBS BB, Samy Podlubny says that operations recently structured by the house of large companies, such as a CRA from Raizen and a CRI from CSN Cimentos, came out with rates of return around IPCA plus 6 % per year.
“In my view, lending money to companies of this size and earning a real rate of 6% tax-free is a great investment,” says Podlubny, adding that the instrument alone is not what defines the level of return that the investor will obtain from the deal, and it is necessary to take into account mainly the credit risk of the company that is issuing the instrument.
The UBS BB executive points out that, for smaller companies that are not so well known by the general public, the real rate of return can approach the 10% mark for tax-exempt corporate bonds. In this case, however, a more thorough analysis of the financial health of the operations is necessary before making the contribution, he says.
“For the less sophisticated investor, the ideal is that he sticks to the best-known names, from the biggest companies”, says the specialist. He recalls that issues have ratings assigned by risk rating agencies, which is a good evaluation metric for investors to measure the level of risk they want to assume.
Podlubny says that, in addition to the credit risk, the investor also needs to be aware of the maturity date of the operations. According to him, issuances of bonds, as a rule, have a medium and long-term horizon, with terms that can vary from two to five years, but which, in some cases, can be even longer, reaching ten years up to the final due date.
If you want to get out sooner, you can sell the papers on the so-called secondary market, where the holders of the papers can get rid of the bonds, with negotiation for other market agents.
In this case, however, the income contracted at the time of acquisition is not guaranteed, with the possibility of the sale being made with some gain or loss, in relation to what was initially foreseen, depending on market conditions at the time of sale.
Contributions from BRL 1,000
To invest in exempt securities, you must have a bank or brokerage account, and you can apply directly through the fixed income section of the applications, or with the advice of investment specialists and bank managers.
Check here the step by step to open a digital account in the main financial institutions in the market.
The minimum contribution amounts vary according to the financial institution. In the case of Órama, Ricardo Teófilo, head of fixed income on the platform, says that investments in exempt securities start from R$ 1,000. At XP and Itaú, the minimum contributions are also R$ 1,000.
“Fixed income securities exempt from IR have shown very interesting returns, and we believe that this is a good time to invest in them”, says the head of fixed income at Órama, adding that the papers available on the platform are previously curated by specialists. of the House.
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