Bloomberg Línea — BTG Pactual has reached an agreement to acquire Órama brokerage for R$ 500 million ($98 million) as part of its strategy to gain scale and seek synergies and efficiency in its digital platform aimed at retail investors. The acquisition was announced to the market on Monday morning.
Órama Investimentos, which has approximately R$ 18 billion ($3.5 billion) in assets under custody (AuC) and 360,000 clients, was founded in 2011 by four experienced professionals in the Brazilian financial market: Selmo Nissenbaum, Habib Nascif, Roberto Rocha, and Guilherme Horn. It was one of the first companies in the country to offer digital investment services.
Nissenbaum and Rocha had previously been founders of Ágora Corretora, which was later sold to Bradesco. Nascif, the CEO of Órama, had previously founded Personale Investimentos with Rocha.
The deal, subject to regulatory approval, does not include the management of funds by Órama. Among the sellers are the partners, Rede D’Or, which had acquired the stake from SulAmérica when it bought the company, and Globo Ventures, the venture capital arm of Globo, each holding 25% of Órama’s capital.
The brokerage has 370 employees and 300 investment advisors registered with Ancord, the professional association.
“This acquisition is part of BTG Pactual’s strategy to expand its digital platforms, increase its customer base, and advance its offerings of products and services for individuals,” BTG noted in a market statement.
For BTG Pactual, the largest investment bank in Latin America led by André Esteves and Roberto Sallouti, the acquisition fits into its growth strategy in the retail segment through digital channels. The investment in the development of the digital platform exceeded R$ 1 billion, and M&A deals expand the revenue-generating capacity of the operation.
This area is led by executive Marcelo Flora, a partner responsible for BTG Pactual’s digital platforms.
This is the second acquisition announced in just over a month. On August 22, the bank had agreed to acquire Magnetis, a 100% digital asset manager that uses robo-advisors to determine allocation strategies and is considered a pioneer in this segment in the country. The transaction amount was not disclosed.
Between 2020 and 2022, before the market turned with the rise in interest rates, BTG acquired Ourinvest, Necton Investimentos, Elite Investimentos, EQI (49%), Grupo Universa (Empiricus and Vitreo), Kinvo, and the retail client portfolios of Fator Corretora and Planner. In 2017, it acquired Network Partners, entering distribution through independent agents.
There were also acquisitions of stakes in independent agent offices, always related to expanding the distribution capacity of the platforms.
In another avenue, BTG Pactual also acquired stakes primarily in asset management companies such as Clave, Perfin, Canuma, Ryo, Absolute, and Kawa Capital, related to the strategy of increasing its management capacity.
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