“We aim to synthesise the main “We aim to synthesise the main lessons I have learned throughout my lessons I have learned throughout my career, with an established culture of career, with an established culture of evolutionary metamorphosis.” evolutionary metamorphosis.”
Fernando Gonçalves Partner and Head of Equities Global
“If you build it, he will come” (Field of Dreams, 1989)
I'd like to begin by saying how thankful I am for the opportunity to share some of the things I have learned during my
career, and what my team and I do within the Global Equities department.
My interest in the financial market was already clear before I even realised it when, as a teenager, I took part in long conversations at the dinner table. Every day my father would give us a detailed
breakdown of the economic and political events taking place during the 1980s and 1990s and their influence on the economic decisions people and companies made We were there, together and always hopeful, when the country’s first democratic presidential election took place after the military regime; when the troubled implementation of the Collor Plan failed, which affected us directly due to the confiscation of our savings; when President Collor was impeached; and when the initially-discredited-but-later-successful Real Plan was implemented.
The relationship between events, the economy and financial assets had always attracted me, but it wasn't clear how I could take part professionally in this interaction.
The first step in my career was to choose an academic path When I was 17, after an exciting student exchange experience in the United States, my father gave me some books that would help me to finally decide to pursue a career in the financial marketLiars Poker, Predators Ball and Barbariansat the Gate (I recommend reading them) I decided to study business administration at Fundação Getúlio Vargas in São Paulo, which would give me the basic training to work in a bank or investment management company Throughout college and after graduating, I added to my CV various other experiences which taught me important lessons regarding my career
Lesson no. 1: No task is too simple. At Empresa Júnior FGV, I had my first experience with the world of finance, taking part in management consultant projects supervised by faculty. One of these projects involved market research on the streets of São Paulo to analyse the market viability of a new pharmaceutical product. An apparently simple task with little added value, which was in fact the basis for the completion of a complex task: the company’s strategic decision-making
Lesson no. 2: Learn from the best. In my third year at university, I was hired under the internship programme in the equities department of Merrill Lynch, at the time the
largest securities brokerage firm in the world and with the largest team of financial advisors in the United States. I wanted to learn from the best how to be a trader, a profession that until then I had only known from the books that my father had given me
Lesson no. 3: Be ready to seize opportunities. I held various positions at Merrill Lynch (middle-office trainee, junior equities analyst, equities and derivatives desk trader), where I stood out for my nimble decision-making and analytical skills. In 2004, I was transferred to New York by Merrill Lynch, expanding my coverage to Latin America and emerging markets. In 2007, I returned to Brazil to take over as head of Merrill Lynch’s Brazilian salestrading desk. It was perhaps the most vibrant period in the history of Brazilian capital markets, with several primary and secondary deals taking place on a weekly basis Merrill Lynch in Brazil was competing for local leadership with Credit Suisse First Boston and Banco Pactual Merrill’s leadership in the United States and the healthy ambition of our team allowed us to be aggressive in transactions where balance sheet usage was more intensive and where my team really excelled.
Lesson no. 4: There will be setbacks. Within a few months, the greatest adversity to my career came as a surprise: the economic crisis of 2008. As portrayed in the book and film Too Big To Fail, Merrill Lynch was absorbed by Bank of America, at the time one of the largest commercial banks in the
United States. We, a small area within one of the largest American banks, would have fewer tools and less space to compete in the Brazilian market. The focus of the six main directors of the Brazilian operation, including me, was to ensure the smoothest possible transition to a new business model, impacted both by the change in corporate culture and the new post-crisis regulatory environment During adverse times, the best strategy is often to take a step back, focus on consolidating the main pillars of the business and then launch into new opportunities. I am confident that in my last two years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch I was able to contribute to business continuity in Brazil.
Lesson no. 5: Aim high. After a 10-year career, I took on another challenge. JP Morgan Chase hired me to restructure the equities area in Brazil. I was tasked to integrate the management and strategic board in Brazil and Latin America, and became a statutory director. We remodelled the trading desk and managed to significantly improve our market share, which allowed me to be promoted to Managing Director in charge of the Equities Trading department for Latin America, overseeing the desk in New York, Mexico, Chile and Brazil
Lesson no. 6: Careers are not linear. During this period, JPM Asset Management acquired Gávea Investimentos, founded in 2003 by former Central Bank president Armínio Fraga. This became one of the bank’s most important projects in Brazil.
I was then given an offer I couldn't refuse: Armínio invited me to help set up the global equities desk for the Gávea Macro fund. It would be an opportunity to migrate from the Sell Side to the Buy Side in an organic way
Despite the favourable position I had as a senior managing director, I saw this as an opportunity, albeit risky, to reposition my career – becoming what I longed for since earlier days: an equities portfolio manager
Lesson no. 7: Be ready to start again. My Buy Side career began at Gávea Investimentos. The mandate was attractive for its scope, but also sensitive to common mistakes made by portfolio managers I soon realised I needed to build a robust investment process to analyse and trade global equities, based on (1) an in-depth fundamental analysis of the expected riskreturn; (2) an assessment of macro vs microeconomic fundamentals; (3) decisionmaking led by research-driven competitive advantage Inspiration is the product of a lot of work.
At Gávea, I concentrated my efforts on emerging markets, given the fund’s expertise in this area I was very active in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Russia, South Africa and Brazil. Over time, I realised that to grow, I would have to redirect my efforts towards developed markets That was when I was given the chance to join the team at Adam Capital, with the mandate to build an investment process largely focused on the United States. I began to replicate the process I had developed over the years for emerging
markets, onto developed markets. It became clearer to me during this process that there were meaningful alpha opportunities in the interactions of economic and corporate cycles
Lesson no. 8: Filter out the noise and trust the process; results will follow. In 2019, I was invited to join the SPX team as a partner The project at hand was unlike anything I had seen in Brazilian asset management. The internationalisation push, with a view to achieve scale in risk allocation seemed very astute to me. The boldness to do business in other countries was commendable A meritocratic culture, there in front of me, was what I was looking for in my career I joined Leonardo Linhares’ team, initially sharing responsibility to manage the global equity book. After a few months of getting to know each other, I was handed the role to run the Global Equities strategy.
There was no consolidated Global Equities strategy when I arrived at SPX. We were staring at a blank slate Over the last five years, we’ve built the team, defined the focus, refined the process. And we've continued relentlessly in this cycle, in spite of setbacks, which always come along.
We are a team of six with different responsibilities and complementary backgrounds: macro, micro, quantitative fundamental analysis and trading. Among us, we cover the main countries and sectors; no task is too small or too complex We always seek to learn from the best when developing an investment thesis, carrying
out our investment due diligence in a solid and fiduciary-minded manner
We have a broad mandate, but we know what our competitive edge is and what we should focus on. Investing in macro equities means using stocks as instruments to express views on the macroeconomic cycle. That fascinating interaction between events, the economy and companies, familiar to me since I was a teenager, creates daily investment opportunities. When we started in 2019, few investment funds had a similar strategy. Five years later, in the face of the pandemic shock, wars and inflation in developed markets, this strategy has become increasingly more relevant within the main global macro funds
Our investment process started to be built in 2014 and has been continually refined Throughout this journey, we have faced many adversities. However, armed with the conviction that careers are not linear, we constantly seek to learn from our mistakes and successes; always aiming high and willing to recreate our process when necessary, one step back in order to take two steps forward We aim to synthesise the main lessons I have learned throughout my career, every day, with an established culture of evolutionary metamorphosis.
William Bethlem, Partner and Head of Business Development in Asia, participated on 19 March in the Brazil-China Financial Forum in Beijing, organised by the Chinese Ministry of Finance in collaboration with the China Development Bank (CDB), in partnership with the Brazilian Ministry of Finance and with the support of the Brazilian Embassy in China.
The forum focused on the theme “Consolidating new support for financial cooperation and promoting the sustainable development of Brazil-China economic,
trade and investment co-operation”. It was well attended by Brazilian and Chinese financial institutions and companies, who emphasized the significance of advancing financial cooperation for market operators. During the event, William was also interviewed by CGTN, the international news channel of CCTV (China’s largest and most influential television station).
Last month, we organised an integration event during an evening of mini golf, providing a relaxed atmosphere for employees to come together
Participants were divided into four groups for the competition, enjoying food and drinks throughout the event. Ultimately, Rogério Xavier emerged as the champion, completing the challenge with the fewest strokes.
During a visit to the London office, Paula Ronchi, Head of Administrative, HR & Marketing, hosted another edition of “Meeting with Partners”. The event took place at the SPX UK office, during morning coffee.
Paula, who took over the Human Resources and Administrative departments in January 2024, shared her plans and aspirations for the future of SPX This gathering facilitated valuable discussions among participants, encouraging the exchange of ideas and insights to foster a collaborative environment for mutual growth.
In the same month, we had the pleasure of conducting another edition of “Meeting with Partners”, with Leonardo Linhares hosting a lunch at our Rio de Janeiro office.
The event provided an excellent opportunity for participants to share their perceptions of the company and discuss ideas collaboratively.
Students from the Liga de Mercado Financeiro of UFRJ were welcomed to our office in Rio de Janeiro.
The visit was led by Karina Mendes from IR, João Torres from Equities and Federico Favero from Risk
In addition to providing students with a deeper understanding of SPX, these meetings also offered significant moments to answer questions relating to the labour market and explore potential career opportunities.
In March, we started promoting the Summer Job programme, targeting Brazilian students living in the USA who are interested in interning at SPX in Brazil. The programme offers positions across various areas of the company and will run from July to September 2024
During the programme, participants will have the opportunity to work on specific projects within their assigned areas and attend presentations to deepen their understanding of SPX The main objective is to raise awareness of SPX among students in the USA, contributing significantly to enhancing our employer brand.
In an interview with Valor Econômico, Bruno Maueler, Director and Head of Investment Solutions, emphasised what makes the department different from others, focusing on a deep understanding of our clients’ individual needs and goals, allowing for more effective collaboration in the creation of solid, strategic portfolios
Click here to read the whole article.
Pedro Daltro, Director and Head of Real Estate and Felipe Sousa, real estate fund analyst at Levante Corp. shared their analyses of the latest trends, insights and opportunities in the sector in a chat directly from the SPX studio.
Watch the whole video here.
FII SPXS11 was featured in the Money Times ranking as one of the funds with the best dividend yields above the Selic rate. The fund distributed dividends of BRL 0.094/share
for 24 February (Dividend Yield: 0.97% p.m. or 12.28% p.a. - DY calculated using the closing price on 29/02). According to the latest Management Report, one of the highlights of the month was the increased allocation to CRI Helbor, with an acquisition rate of CDI + 2 4% p a In the equities portfolio, the fund had a monthly growth of 3.75%, in comparison to IMOB’s 1.3% and IBOV’s 1%. Click here to read the Report.
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