Mysterious Equity Fund Leads Brazil Losses With 80% Drop in 2020
Mysterious Equity Fund Leads Brazil Losses With 80% Drop in 2020
(Bloomberg) -- Among the spectacular losses in Brazilian equity funds this week, one in particular stands out: FIA Ponta Sul IE.
The fund had a negative return of 55% on March 9, more than four times the drop in the broad equity index that day and the most among 1,400 Brazilian equity funds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Year-to-date through Monday, the fund has plummeted 80%, also the biggest loser among peers, with assets under management shrinking to 1 billion reais ($210 million), from a peak 5.6 billion reais on Jan. 23.
A representative from Ponta Sul didn’t reply to a telephone and email request for comment.
The Ponta Sul fund was launched in 2012, has a single shareholder and is managed by Flavio Calp Gondim, according to regulatory filings. Back in November last year, it had among its holdings retailer Magazine Luiza SA and flip-flop maker Alpargatas SA, the latest regulatory data show.
Ponta Sul Investimentos, the Rio de Janeiro-based firm that manages the fund, was an early investor in Banco Inter SA, a Brazilian digital bank that counts SoftBank Group Corp. among backers, and went public in 2018. Ponta Sul holds a stake of about 15% in the lender, according to the most recent filing available. Banco Inter has shed about a quarter of its market value over the past eight days.
Since its inception through March 9, the FIA Ponta Sul IE fund had a 34% return in local currency compared to a 49% gain for the Ibovespa stock index. The fund’s trustee is Banco BTG Pactual SA, according to the regulator.
Brazilian markets have been particularly hard hit by the global sell-off. The Ibovespa stock index has erased 14 months of gains since late January and is down 29% since its peak in the beginning of the year, as tumbling oil prices and coronavirus-fueled jitters hammer global equities, with Brazilian stocks entering a bear market.
On Wednesday, a 10% drop triggered a circuit breaker for the Ibovespa for the second time in three days.
--With assistance from Sebastian Krieger and Filipe Guerra.
To contact the reporters on this story: Felipe Marques in Sao Paulo at fmarques10@bloomberg.net;Cristiane Lucchesi in Sao Paulo at clucchesi5@bloomberg.net;Vinícius Andrade in São Paulo at vandrade3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Daniel Cancel, Julia Leite
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