Greenhill Expands Into Brazil Despite Nation’s Woes

SÃO PAULO, Brazil â€" The boutique investment bank Greenhill & Company has opened an office in Brazil and hired the former Goldman Sachs executive Daniel Wainstein to run it, a move that comes as several Wall Street players have been retrenching amid Brazil’s economic woes.

The move is the firm’s first foray into the group of emerging markets known as BRICs, or Brazil, Russia, India and China, said Kevin Costantino, a Greenhill managing director.

While the firm may eventually open up shop in those countries, for now, Brazil is the most attractive among that group. “It is where our clients want to be,” Mr. Costantino said in an interview with DealBook Tuesday evening.

Mr. Wainstein, 43, previously headed Goldman Sachs investing banking business in Brazil. He spent 13 years with that firm, 11 of them in Brazil. He also worked at Lehman Brothers.

“He had a fit that was both cultural and business,” Mr. Costantino said of Mr. Wainstein, who graduated from the University of São Paulo.

Greenhill, founded in 1996 by Robert F. Greenhill, a former president of Morgan Stanley, is expanding into South America’s largest economy at a time when a host of economic issues are plaguing the nation’s growth. On Sept. 30, Brazil’s central bank lowered its estimate for gross domestic product this year to 2.5 percent, from its previous forecast of 2.7 percent.

Dealmaking has been hit hard. Merger and acquisition activity in Brazil this year to date totaled just $35 billion, down from $52 billion over the same period, according to data provided by Dealogic.

Still, Greenhill said it was attracted to the growing middle class in Brazil and a mature financial sector not found in other emerging markets. Lowered valuations is also likely to spur dealmaking. “We certainly think that Brazil is an attractive market over the long-term,” Mr. Costantino said.

The firm has looked at Brazil over the past several years and at least as early as 2011 expressed an interest in expanding here, but to date has assessed the country from New York.

The firm’s activity here has been very limited so far. But one deal it advised, according to Mr. Costantino, was the Travelers Companies’ 2010 acquisition of a 43 percent stake for $370 million in the Brazilian company J. Malucelli Participacoes em Seguros e Resseguros.

Now the firm sees more activity to come and with Mr. Wainstein in charge, will add a team based in São Paulo.