Company: Jive Investments Web Address: http://www.jiveinvestments.com/ Telephone: + 55 (11) 3500-5055
Best Investment Management Firm 2016 – Brazil
Jive Investments is a fully integrated NPL platform focused on originating, structuring and servicing investment portfolios in the distressed credit market in Brazil.
Established in 2010, Jive is a well-respected and one of the largest investors in the Brazil NPL and distressed credit market, being one of the few vertically integrated players with structuring, execution and loan servicing expertise. Alexandre Cruz founded the firm when he started acquiring non-performing credits from his clients at NeoIntelligence, a financial service boutique which he founded in 2004. In 2010, he partnered with Marcelo Martins and Manuela Larangeira to acquire Lehman Brothers’ portfolio of corporate NPLs in Brazil,which marked the official start of Jive’s activities. Guilherme Ferreira joined as a partner soon thereafter. Jive’s investment team is comprised of over 60 dedicated professionals who possess diverse and complementary skill sets in finance, distressed credits and non-performing loans, of which almost half have a legal background. The firm has a strong focus on acquiring large corporate NPL portfolios, capitalizing on Jive’s expertise and proprietary pricing model to analyse and underwrite complex loans in a short period of time. Currently, Jive’s platform manages a portfolio of over R$8bn in non-performing credits, including corporate and retail loans. In 2015, the Firm launched a R$500mm closed-end fund to invest in the distressed asset class in Brazil, and over 60% of the Fund’s capital has been allocated already. It can arguably be said that Jive has already achieved its mission, to become a reference in the origination, pricing and recovery of distressed loans and assets, maximizing returns for all stakeholders in the process, but the firm continue to work hard to deliver superior returns to its investors by ensuring in depth analysis and strong execution go side by side with integrity, transparency, honesty and respect in every transaction and investment they undertake. Moving forward, the Firm estimates that the Brazilian economy will continue to struggle following the economic crisis, and therefore Jive plans to boost its headcount and improve its servicing capacity, in order to be able to manage more distressed debt and expand other asset classes. This prediction would seem to be correct, as Brazil’s economy is poised to shrink 3.5% this year according to a central bank survey, adding last year’s 3.8% contraction. Meanwhile, annual inflation is running above 10% and unemployment in Brazil’s six biggest metropolitan areas has surged to 7.6% from 4.3% at the beginning of last year, data compiled by Bloomberg show. All of that is making it harder for consumers and businesses to pay their bills. Personal delinquency rates soared to 6.2% in January from 5.3% a year earlier, the central bank said. And the number of companies filing for bankruptcy protection in the first two months of the year doubled, according to Serasa Experian, a Sao Paulo-based credit rating company. Therefore, Jive is poised to undertake a number of investments within Brazil’s distressed market, which have the potential to help the Firm grow considerably in the next few years.
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