Bank brings Arabs to invest
Gazeta Mercantil - 11/21/2007
In the next days, Brazil will receive the visit of a group of 25 millionaire investors from the Arab Emirates, such as Abu Dhabi and Dubai, all of them clients of the private banking (wealth management) segment of the HSBC in the Middle East. The trip, sponsored by the subsidiary of the British group in the region, will last one week and its schedule includes a visit to São Paulo and Rio - HSBC does not reveal the exact date of such visit in order to assure the security of its clients. "This is the first time Brazil appears in the radar of such investors. They have been to China for two consecutive years, to India, and now they are interested in Latin America. Brazil is one of the main markets of the region", says Sylvia Coutinho, executive officer responsible for the HSBC Private Bank and Asset Management in Latin America. The bank in the Country has already received the visit of representatives of companies and governments of the region, but it has never received the visit of an organized group of clients interested in doing businesses. The Arab investors haven't even arrived in the Country and HSBC is already planning a new round. "When the subsidiary of HSBC in the Middle East cogitated the possibility of organizing a trip to Brazil, the interest was excellent", says Sylvia. According to the business executive, more than one hundred clients have applied to take the trip and the bank, thus, decided to organize new groups. And it is not only the Arabs that have laid their eyes on Brazil. The executive officer informed beforehand that, until the end of the first quarter of the next year, the Country will receive the visit from a German group, clients of the private bank and of the segment of institutional investors of HSBC in Europe.