American manager buys around BRL 5.9 billion in Itaú shares

With approximately US$ 90 billion (R$ 487.4 billion) in assets under management, the North American asset manager GQG Partners acquired a relevant interest corresponding to approximately 5.23% of the preferred shares of Itaú Unibanco outstanding in the market.

According to a statement released by the bank on Thursday (20), the stake acquired is equivalent to approximately 253.5 million preferred shares traded on the Brazilian Stock Exchange, B3.

Considering the closing of BRL 23.29 of the shares on Thursday, the manager’s investment in the Brazilian bank corresponded to a financial volume of approximately BRL 5.9 billion.

With the deal, GQG Partners should become the fourth largest shareholder in the bank, behind Itaú Unibanco Participações, Itaúsa and BlackRock.

“This is a minority investment that is not intended to change the composition of control or the administrative structure of the company”, informed the manager in the correspondence sent to Itaú.

The manager said that at the moment it does not intend to acquire any additional shares on behalf of clients in order to acquire control or change the bank’s administrative structure.

Itaú Unibanco recorded managerial net income of R$ 6.779 billion in the third quarter of 2021, which corresponded to a growth of 34.7% compared to the same period last year.

As of August 2021, GQG Partners’ allocation through its emerging market investment funds amounted to around US$25.9 billion.

Among the ten main positions in the portfolio of the strategy dedicated to emerging markets of the American manager at the end of last year, names such as Petrobras, Unilever, Samsung and Heineken stood out.

Brazil’s weight in the emerging markets portfolio was approximately 7.7%, with India leading with around 27%, followed by Russia with 16% and China with 14.5%.