MBA Lazard se expande en América Latina con la apertura de sus oficinas en Perú

"Cada vez más empresas locales e internacionales se muestran interesadas en invertir en Perú", dijo Alejandro F. Reynal, Presidente y CEO de MBA Lazard.

El Director Ejecutivo Augusto Barreto liderará este emprendimiento de banca de inversión en Perú.

MBA Lazard, el grupo líder en el negocio de banca de inversión de Latinoamérica, anunció hoy que ha abierto nuevas oficinas de asesoramiento financiero en Lima, Perú, las cuales comenzarán a operar inmediatamente. La empresa ha contratado al banquero peruano Augusto F. Barreto como Director Ejecutivo para que lidere el emprendimiento.

La apertura de las oficinas en Perú es parte de una estrategia más amplia de MBA Lazard para ofrecer sus servicios de asesoramiento financiero en toda América Central y Sudamérica. MBA Lazard es una unión temporal de empresas - joint venture - entre Lazard Ltd y el Grupo MBA, compañía matriz de MBA Banco de Inversiones.

"MBA Lazard está realmente entusiasmada de entrar en el mercado peruano en un momento tan favorable de desarrollo económico y entorno de negocios. Cada vez más empresas locales e internacionales se muestran interesadas en invertir en Perú", dijo Alejandro F. Reynal, Presidente y CEO de MBA Lazard. "También nos sentimos muy afortunados de contar con el talento profesional y la experiencia que Augusto Barreto aporta a nuestro grupo".

Peruano de nacimiento, el Sr. Barreto cuenta con más de 14 años de experiencia en banca de inversión, 11 de los cuales los dedicó a fusiones y adquisiciones en Latinoamérica. Ingresó a MBA Lazard en septiembre, proveniente del Citigroup Global Markets en Lima, en donde fue responsable de banca de inversión para Sudamérica, excluyendo Brasil. Antes trabajó en Nueva York para el Citigroup y Salomon Smith Barney.

El Sr. Barreto ha ofrecido asesoramiento en un gran número de transacciones que incluyen el proceso de desinversión de PSEG de Chilquinta y Luz del Sur y Electricidad de Caracas en su venta a PDVSA. El Sr. Barreto posee un MBA de The Wharton School de la Universidad de Pennsylvania. "Estoy muy entusiasmado con formar parte de un banco de inversión como Lazard, con una posición única en el mercado y raíces Latinoamericanas muy fuertes, combinado con un gran alcance global, presencia y nivel", dijo el Sr. Barreto. "Ansío poder ayudar a los clientes peruanos e internacionales a lograr sus objetivos estratégicos en la región".

Además de Perú, MBA Lazard tiene oficinas en Argentina, Uruguay, Chile y Panamá. MBA Lazard MBA Lazard es una firma líder en banca de inversión y gestión de activos que provee una vasta gama de servicios a una clientela amplia y diversificada, incluyendo corporaciones globales, instituciones financieras y compañías nacionales.

Una unión temporal de empresas - joint venture - al 50-50 entre Lazard Ltd y Merchant Bankers Asociados ("MBA"), con oficinas centrales en Argentina, MBA Lazard tiene oficinas en América Central y Sudamérica y ha asesorado a clientes en Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela, Panamá, Guatemala, El Salvador y Costa Rica. Para más información sobre MBA Lazard, visite http://www.mba-lazard.com

Acerca de Lazard Lazard, una de las firmas de asesoramiento financiero y administración de inversiones más importantes a nivel mundial, opera desde 40 ciudades en 23 países en América del Norte, Europa, Asia, Australia, América Central y América del Sur. La compañía, fundada en 1848, brinda asesoramiento sobre fusiones y adquisiciones, reestructuración y obtención de capital, así como servicios de administración de inversiones a corporaciones, sociedades, instituciones, gobiernos e individuos. Para obtener más información sobre Lazard, visite http://www.lazard.com

MBA. A Global Reach With the Local Touch

MBA (Merchant Bankers Asociados S.A.) is an Argentine company specialized in Investment Banking. MBA has initiated and participated in a greater number of mergers, acquisitions, privatizations and financial re-structuring processes in Argentina than any of its local competitors and for larger amounts.

MBA also provides financial advisory services to companies related to their capital structure, plays a role in the bond and share markets and develops financial products. The Private Banking Department provides individual customers with investment advice and manages investment portfolios for institutions and individuals, manages mutual funds and invests in private equity.

The above services are offered by MBA and its controlled companies: MBA Banco de Inversiones S.A., MBA Sociedad de Bolsa S.A., MBA Asset Management S.A. and MBA Private Equity S.A.. MBA has incorporated strategic international partners in its different business units in order to maximize the quality of its services and to consolidate multidisciplinary teams capable of providing a global vision of markets.

The main shareholders of MBA include Darby Overseas Partners L.P. (the investment company founded by Nicholas Brady, former Secretary of the Treasury Department of the United States) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The Argentine shareholders of MBA began operations as an investment bank in 1981. The company has since then successfully overcome the various challenges, risks and opportunities of a period in Argentina characterized by sudden and frequent institutional, economic, social and political change. MBA is today a leading company, which supplies innovative financial services and products for new scenarios. This is possible as a result of teams of specialists with the highest ethical and professional standards and profound knowledge of the different processes.

Alejandro Reynal

Más sobre MBA y Lazard

Establecido en 1981, el Grupo MBA es una empresa líder en banca de inversión y administración de activos. Provee una vasta gama de servicios a una clientela amplia y diversificada, incluyendo compañías nacionales, corporaciones globales e instituciones financieras. El Grupo MBA ha asesorado a clientes nacionales, regionales e internacionales en Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela, Paraguay, Panamá, Guatemala, El Salvador y Costa Rica. Además de su nueva oficina en Panamá, abierta en enero de 2007, MBA tiene una oficina en Uruguay desde 1987 y desde 2006 un joint venture en Chile denominado Altis-MBA. Para mayor información, por favor visite

Lazard es una de las firmas de asesoramiento financiero y administración de activos más prominentes del mundo, opera desde 29 ciudades en 16 países de América del Norte, Europa, Asia, Australia y Sudamérica. Con orígenes que datan de 1848, la firma provee asesoramiento en fusiones y adquisiciones, reestructuración y emisión de capital, así como servicios de administración de activos a corporaciones, sociedades, instituciones, gobiernos e individuos. Para mayor información de Lazard, por favor visite www.lazard.com

Alejandro Reynal, Presidente de MBA, anuncia acuerdo con LAZARD

Alejandro Reynal anunció que con esta operación el Grupo MBA gana acceso global y permite a Lazard expandirse en América Latina

Lazard Ltd anunció hoy sus planes de adquirir el 50% del Grupo MBA (compañía propietaria de MBA Banco de Inversiones) con oficinas en Centro y Sudamérica. La entidad, que en un futuro se llamará MBA Lazard, ofrecerá servicios de asesoramiento financiero en la región de América Latina. Lazard, con su joint venture existente en Brasil, Signatura Lazard, y su inversión en el Grupo MBA, contará ahora con cobertura en todos los principales mercados financieros de Centro y Sudamérica. La adquisición está sujeta a la aprobación regulatoria del Banco Central de la República Argentina.

“El acuerdo de hoy refuerza la estrategia de Lazard de expandir su negocio de asesoramiento financiero, y nuestro compromiso de proveer servicios premium a clientes e industrias a lo largo de todo el mundo”, dijo Charles G. Ward III, Presidente de Lazard. “En los últimos 25 años, el Grupo MBA ha construido una sólida red de equipos de asesoramiento financiero en América Latina, particularmente en Argentina, Chile, Uruguay y Panamá. El Grupo MBA nos brinda una presencia fuerte y dinámica en América Latina”.

“Esta unión de dos exitosas instituciones financieras internacionales crea una asociación poderosa”, dijo Alejandro Reynal, Presidente y CEO del Grupo MBA. “Lazard tiene casi 160 años de historia proveyendo asesoramiento en complejas transacciones financieras que trascienden culturas, industrias y geografías. El Grupo MBA considera a Lazard como el mejor socio en la búsqueda de la expansión de nuestras fronteras, y refuerza el compromiso de expandir nuestro negocio en América Latina”.

Lazard está actualmente asesorando en un importante número de transacciones alrededor del mundo, incluyendo la fusión de Barclays con ABN Amro, por US$91.300 millones, la mayor fusión de bancos de la historia; el acuerdo de Acciona con Enel de €43.700 millones por la transacción de Endesa; la venta TXU a un grupo de capitales privados conformando la mayor compra apalancada de la historia; la adquisición que Microsoft realizó por US$6.000 millones de aQuantive. El Grupo MBA, que ha mantenido una relación estratégica con Lazard desde 2004, ha realizado recientemente una serie de transacciones clave, incluyendo la venta de Bank Boston Argentina a Standard Bank de Sudáfrica, la venta de las operaciones de Pilagá por parte de sus accionistas belgas a ADECO Agro; y la venta de un paquete accionario de YPF propiedad de los empleados.

ALTIS MBA SERVICIOS FINANCIEROS INICIA SUS OPERACIONES EN CHILE

MBA ha comenzado sus operaciones en Chile en sociedad con el destacado banquero chileno Sr. Tomás Müller S. El joint-venture se denomina ALTIS MBA Servicios Financieros S.A.

ALTIS MBA Servicios Financieros asistirá a las empresas que operan en Chile en todos sus negocios de fusiones y adquisiciones, reestructuraciones financieras, financiamiento de proyectos y operaciones de mercado de capitales. Esta iniciativa forma parte del plan de expansión que MBA está desarrollando en América Latina, y confirma el compromiso que el Banco tiene con sus clientes en toda la región.

Central Bank of Argentina Approves Sale of 50% Interest in Grupo MBA to Lazard

Brings Global Access to MBA and Extends Lazard's Reach Across Latin America

The Central Bank of Argentina approved the sale of a 50% interest in Grupo MBA to Lazard Ltd (NYSE: LAZ), one of the world's preeminent financial advisory and asset management firms. Grupo MBA, parent company of MBA Banco de Inversiones, is a leading investment banking firm with offices across Central and South America.

The new entity, to be branded MBA Lazard, will offer investment banking advisory services in the Latin American region. With its existing Brazilian joint venture, Signatura Lazard, and its investment in MBA, Lazard will now have coverage in all major financial markets in Central and South America.

"Our joining together creates a powerful combination of two successful, international financial institutions," said Alejandro Reynal, Founder, Chairman and CEO of MBA. "Lazard has a nearly 160-year history of providing advice on complex, financial transactions that transcend cultures, industries and geographies.

"We share many characteristics with Lazard that will ensure the future success of our partnership, including an entrepreneurial culture, client- centric perspective, long-term approach to client relationships, and dedication to offering clients independent, trusted and unbiased advice".

"We are pursuing this transaction to enhance the resources and capabilities we bring to our clients. Our investment bankers will now have access to unparalleled industry expertise and relationships, integrated global reach, and a best practice partnership with the most focused and accomplished financial advisory firm in the world," added Mr. Reynal.

"This transaction reinforces Lazard's strategy to expand our financial advisory business, and our commitment to provide premium service to clients across geographies and industries," said Charles G. Ward III, President of Lazard. "The combination enables us to leverage Lazard's industry sector expertise and relationships, geographic reach and corporate finance capabilities with MBA's strong market knowledge, access and transactional experience in Latin America. MBA Lazard will bring us a strong growth platform in the region that will benefit our clients and our firm."

MBA Lazard will be led by Mr. Reynal as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors.

About MBA

Established in 1981, MBA is a leading investment banking and asset management firm in Central and South America. It provides a wide range of services to a diversified client base that includes domestic and international corporations, financial institutions, family-owned enterprises and governments. MBA has advised national, regional and international clients in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay, Venezuela, Paraguay, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica. In addition to its new office in Panama, which opened in January 2007 to cover Central America & the Caribbean region, MBA has had an office in Uruguay since 1987 and a joint venture in Chile called Altis-MBA since 2006. For more information on MBA, please visit www.mba.com.ar

About Lazard

Lazard, one of the world's preeminent financial advisory and asset management firms, operates from 35 cities across 17 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. With origins dating back to 1848, the firm provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and capital raising, as well as asset management services to corporations, partnerships, institutions, governments, and individuals. For more information on Lazard, please visit www.lazard.com .

Contacts:
Identia PR for Grupo MBA

Dario Minore
+54911 5927 2977
dminore@identiapr.com

SOURCE PRNewswire

More information: http://www.alejandroreynal.com

Argentina's Kirchner Snubs Fiorina, IMF, for `Political Appeal'

Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- When Carly Fiorina, Hewlett-Packard Co.'s chief executive officer, went to Buenos Aires to visit Argentine President Nestor Kirchner in July, he kept her waiting almost an hour.

Fiorina -- who runs the world's No. 2 personal-computer maker -- left without seeing him, says Aldo Leporati, spokesman for Hewlett-Packard in Argentina, where the company has had sales offices for more than 30 years.

``Kirchner has managed to anger the investment community,'' says Alejandro Reynal, chief executive of MBA Banco de Inversiones SA, an Argentine investment bank in Buenos Aires. ``Investors are in a gigantic wait-and-see.''

Since his April 2003 election, Kirchner, 54, has refused to negotiate with bondholders seeking compensation for defaulted government debt, has declined to help utilities made insolvent by a currency devaluation in 2002 and has blamed the International Monetary Fund, which will discuss Argentina's debt at its annual meeting this weekend, for the country's woes.

Kirchner's standoff with creditors, investors and the IMF, which suspended a $13.3 billion loan accord in July, is stunting a recovery in South America's second-biggest economy, says Reynal, 59, whose bank is majority-owned by San Mateo, California- based Franklin Resources Inc. and has former U.S. Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady as an adviser.

`Only Offer'

The IMF withheld a loan payment to Argentina in August after the country failed to move forward on negotiations with bondholders over $100 billion of defaulted debt. The government in June proposed paying investors 25 cents per $1 of defaulted bonds. Kirchner says the offer isn't negotiable.

``The current offer is the only one we will make,'' Kirchner said in a Sept. 22 speech at the Council of the Americas in New York. ``It's the offer that will go to the markets.''

A day earlier, he told the United Nations General Assembly that IMF demands to reduce government spending would create more poverty in a country where half the population of 37 million doesn't have adequate food, clothing or housing.

``We will see an increase in the number of poor people if we obey them again,'' said Kirchner. He blamed the IMF for encouraging the government to keep the peso at par with the dollar and to borrow overseas before the country plunged into recession in 1999. ``The ones that need the most structural reforms are the international lending organizations,'' Kirchner said.

Political Tool

George Estes, 49, who helps manage $3.5 billion in emerging- market debt, including Argentine bonds, at Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. in Boston, says Kirchner's use of the showdown with creditors is a political tool. He is preventing the country from reaching an agreement with bondholders and from regaining the confidence of international investors, Estes says.

``Kirchner has chosen to make his relation to investors a key element of his political appeal to local people,'' says Estes. ``That is preventing him from taking a more realistic approach to the debt issue.''

IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato, 55, says Argentina needs to regain the trust of international investors. Argentina, Brazil and Turkey account for 70 percent of the fund's $107 billion of outstanding loans.

``Argentina needs a friendly environment, legal, political and social, for new investments,'' de Rato said in a Sept. 20 speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. ``It needs to regain a normal status in the world economy and regain its relationship with creditors.''

`Respect'

Kirchner has also snubbed political rivals and even cabinet members. Felipe Sola, governor of the province of Buenos Aires, which accounts for 40 percent of the country's GDP, has complained Kirchner either refuses to meet with him or is late for meetings. ``What I ask from the president is respect,'' said Sola, 54, in a May 26 interview on TodoNoticias television.

Former Justice Minister Gustavo Beliz, 42, said Kirchner tries to `humiliate everybody,' a day after he was fired for accusing the intelligence service of failing to prevent street violence. ``Kirchner can go 15 days without answering a personal phone call from a cabinet member,'' Beliz said July 26 on Radio Mitre.

Argentine Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna is slated to meet IMF officials at the fund's annual meeting in Washington, according to IMF spokesman Thomas Dawson.

Argentine Lower House Majority Leader Jose Maria Diaz Bancalari, 60, says Kirchner has good reason to be wary of the IMF and business executives.

Slowing Growth

``It's not a whim or an ideological position,'' Bancalari says. ``Adopting the IMF's recipes has led Argentina into crisis. The president wants real and genuine investment, not speculative capital and vulture funds.''

Without foreign investment, the recovery in Argentina's economy, which grew 8.7 percent last year after contracting a record 11 percent in 2002, is running out of steam, says MBA's Reynal.

``The country is heavily dependent on foreign direct investment,'' says Reynal. ``To play the game differently is very dangerous.''

The amount spent by international companies to buy, equip or expand businesses in Argentina fell to just $100 million last year from a record $22 billion in 1999, according to the Washington-based Institute of International Finance.

Hewlett-Packard, which has more than 800 employees in Argentina, still has not regained the level of sales it had prior to the country's default, said spokesman Leporati. It is currently hiring for its call centers, Leporati said.

Investment

Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard is the country's biggest seller of computer desktops, notebooks, printers and servers, according to IDC, a Framingham, Massachusetts-based technology and telecommunications research company.

Hewlett-Packard's Fiorina, 50, told journalists July 27 in Buenos Aires they should ask Kirchner why their meeting didn't take place, La Nacion newspaper reported. Hewlett-Packard spokesman Leporati and Kirchner spokesman Miguel Nunez declined to comment on why the meeting didn't happen.

Argentine businesses haven't caught up either. An August survey by the government's statistics institute showed that only one in 25 Argentine companies had plans to invest at home. The institute didn't say how many companies it surveyed.

``Kirchner doesn't deserve the credit for the growth we are seeing,'' says Diego Adamovsky, 40, owner of Buenos Aires-based Linea Globito SA, the country's third-largest producer of baby clothes. ``And when you owe so much, you should act more humbly than he does.''

Soybeans, Tourism

Argentina's recovery since 2002 was fueled by rising soybean prices, increased tourism and an expansion of industrial production. World soybean prices reached a 15-year high of $10.64 a bushel on April 5.

A 70 percent decline in the peso in 2002 made locally made goods cheaper than the imported products that had flooded Argentina in the 1990s, when the peso had been pegged at par with the U.S. dollar. It now trades at about 3 pesos per dollar.

The rate of growth has started to slow. In the second quarter, gross domestic product grew 0.5 percent from the previous quarter, the smallest quarterly expansion since the end of the recession in 2002. Soybean prices have fallen to $5.29 a bushel as world production has increased. The government forecasts the economy will grow 7 percent this year and 4.5 percent in 2005.

Unemployment

Argentina's jobless rate rose in the second quarter this year to 14.8 percent from 14.4 percent in the previous quarter, the first increase after six quarters of declines. The rate doesn't include heads of families who receive government handouts. If they were counted as jobless, unemployment would be more than 19 percent.

Kirchner, in a speech Sept. 9 at a rally in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, blamed the slowdown and rising unemployment on a shortage of energy. The cause was lack of investment by utility companies, he said, including Madrid-based Repsol YPF SA, Rio de Janeiro-based Petroleo Brasileiro SA and Pan American Energy LLC, a joint venture of London-based BP Plc and Bridas Corp. of Buenos Aires.

Kirchner in May slapped taxes of as much as 20 percent on exports of gas and oil.

``If we decided to increase taxes it is because in Argentina we're finished with burdening the weak and charging the Argentine people for investments that were not carried out,'' Kirchner said in a May 11 speech to executives of utility companies, including Repsol Chairman Alfonso Cortina. ``Those who didn't fulfill their obligations have to be made responsible.''

Utilities Sue Argentina

After meeting Kirchner in New York on Sept. 23, Cortina said Repsol, Europe's fifth-largest oil company, would spend more in Argentina if the rules for investment were better.

``The legal and fiscal frameworks have to be consistent with those of other countries,'' Cortina, 60, said at a press conference.

More than 20 utilities, including Sempra Energy and Spain's Endesa SA, are suing Argentina in a World Bank court, the International Center for Investment Disputes, saying the government won't allow them to raise prices to offset losses caused by the peso's decline.

The companies, which invested more than $25 billion in Argentina's public services in the 1990s, have been insolvent since the peso depreciated 70 percent in 2002.

They have asked the government to allow price increases and new contracts to let them recoup their investments and resume payments on defaulted obligations. Under the suspended IMF loan program, Argentina committed to renegotiating about 60 contracts with utilities by mid-year.

`Resisting Reforms'

``Argentina has failed to meet major commitments under the IMF deal and is resisting reforms,'' says Rafael de la Fuente, 35, Latin America economist at BNP Paribas SA in New York.

A lack of job creation, rising crime and protests that clog the streets of Buenos Aires have caused Kirchner, who was governor of the province of Santa Cruz before taking office in May 2003, to lose popularity, according to Buenos Aires-based pollster Catterberg & Asociados.

A nationwide survey of 800 people in early September by Catterberg showed Kirchner's popularity rating had dropped to 58 percent from 80 percent in February. The poll had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

Kirchner's antagonism toward utilities and international companies is aimed at gaining popularity, particularly among the poor, says Rosendo Fraga, 52, director of Buenos Aires-based polling company Nueva Mayoria.

``Kirchner needs to say things that are perceived as acts of authority,'' says Fraga. ``He has an obsession with image and that takes precedence over actions. That may have a short-term impact in polls but it does have long-term consequences.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Helft in Buenos Aires dhelft@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 30, 2004 23:10 EDT