Alexandre Müller & team BTG Pactual
The buy side says: “They consistently deliver timely and focused research.”
São Paulo–based Alexandre Müller guides the BTG Pactual duo to a first-place debut. Clients praise the team’s “highly valuable” insights into “primary and secondary credit-market flows, price and yield curves, rating actions and other related activities.” The analysts initiated coverage of Brazilian electricity distributor Energisa in April, recommending purchase of the debentures of its Minas Gerais, Sergipe and Paraíba subsidiaries (ENMG17, ENSE12 and SAEL11, respectively), due December 2013. With a yield of 190 basis points over the benchmark Certificados de Depósito Interbancário rate, the notes were trading at an unwarranted premium to their peers, Müller’s crew argued, given the utility’s strong cash flow, its reduced exposure to toxic derivatives and the high energy demand in the regions served by those subsidiaries. By the end of July, their average yield had narrowed to 165 basis points. Müller, 27, is a 2004 graduate of Rio de Janeiro’s Universidade Federal Fluminense, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics. In 2007 he joined predecessor firm UBS Pactual, where he worked on the credit sales desk before becoming head of corporate debt research; before that he worked as a credit portfolio manager with Icatu Hartford Asset Management in Rio de Janeiro.
