Former Credit Suisse Trader to Create Asset Manager in Brazil

(Bloomberg) -- William Leite, a former Credit Suisse Group AG trader who later became head of the equities desk at Garde Asset Management, has left the Brazilian company to create an asset manager, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Leite is in talks to hire two equity analysts from his former team at Garde, which he joined in 2018, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

Garde said Fernando Borges was hired to replace Leite. Borges has worked as a portfolio manager at Banco BTG Pactual SA and Credit Suisse, according to his LinkedIn profile. Leite and BTG declined to comment.

Leite also had a stint at one of Brazil’s biggest independent hedge funds, SPX Capital, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before Garde, he worked at Credit Suisse as an equity trader for more than four years.

As interest rates slide to record lows in Latin America’s largest economy, investors have been rotating from government bonds to riskier hedge fund and equity fund products in search for fatter returns. Local hedge funds saw a fourth straight year of inflows in 2019, while equity funds set a record in net new money last year.

--With assistance from Felipe Marques.

To contact the reporter on this story: Vinícius Andrade in São Paulo at vandrade3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brad Olesen at bolesen3@bloomberg.net, Catherine Larkin

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