It was a tale of two pandemics for the top-scoring chief executives on Institutional Investor’s 2021 Latin American Executive Team.
Leaders in investment management and chemical manufacturing scrambled to cope with unprecedented demand for products, ranging from digital financial platforms to recycled plastics for water bottles, food packaging, clothes, automotive components, and construction materials. It was quite a different story for owners of bricks and mortar assets with no option but to close.
“Our greatest challenge this year might surprise you,” said Alpek’s José de Jesús Valdez, the second-highest scoring chief executive in the oil, gas, and petrochemicals category. “Demand for our products has sharply increased, outpacing domestic supply in the Americas.”
Meanwhile the last 12 months have mostly been about survival, not expansion, at Aliansce Sonae, the second-largest shopping mall developer in Brazil. Chief executive Rafael Sales, the top-scoring CEO in the real estate category, said 2020 brought with it his toughest decision yet: to close the company’s malls and offices.
Stepping aside was the toughest business decision Guilherme Benchimol of the Brazilian investment management company XP Inc made in the last year. After 20 years as chief executive, he has become executive chairman, nominating Thiago Maffra as his successor. He knew it was the right thing, he told II, but that didn’t make it easier. “XP has been my life since I founded it in 2001,” he said. “It took me long hours of thoughts and conversations in order to make the final decision.”
But he leaves on a high. After leading XP through its public offering in December 2019, Benchimol was forced to rapidly expand XP’s capacity as the company, which provides low-fee financial products and services, faced an unprecedented increase in trading volumes across its platforms at the start of the pandemic.
As he leaves the chief executive post, Benchimol is in a reflective mood. The most important lesson he learned in his business career? Sharing his dream with people who got it — and stuck with him for the duration. “Much of XP’s success to date was achieved due to the partnership model,” he said. “That empowers employees and makes them real owners and CEOs of the company.”
To determine the members of Institutional Investor’s 2021 Latin America Executive Team, we surveyed buy-side analysts, money managers and sell-side researchers at securities firms and financial institutions that cover the region, including those who cast and received votes in this year’s Latin America and All-Brazil Research Team surveys. Survey results reflect the opinions of 765 investment professionals at 382 financial services firms.
We asked the participants to rate the chief executive officers, chief financial officers and investor relations professionals at the companies in their coverage universes. CEOs were rated on their credibility, leadership and quality of communication. CFOs were rated on their ability in capital allocation, financial stewardship and quality of communication. For the Investor Relations programs, companies were rated on the following attributes: authority and credibility; business and market knowledge; earnings calls; responsiveness; virtual meetings/presentations; and timing, consistency and granularity of financial disclosure. All votes are weighted by rating (five being excellent; one being average) and aggregated to create the CEO, CFO and IR Program rankings. Additionally, voters were asked to rate the companies’ ESG metrics, analyst/investor day, and crisis management amid Covid-19.
The overall rankings in each of the categories —CEO, CFO, IR Professional, IR Company, ESG, Analyst Day, Covid-19 —are based on combined buy- and sell-side votes. Separate rosters (buy side, sell side) are also available for each award classification.
Honored Companies are companies who achieved at least one published position. To earn the designation of Most Honored Company, a company must achieve a weighted score of 20 or more points across the seven categories in the combined, buy-side and sell-side rankings, wherein each first-place position is worth three points; second place, two; and third place, one.
Mid-Cap and Small Cap rankings were also produced. Mid-Cap is defined as companies between $2 billion and $10 billion in market capitalization. Small cap is defined as companies with less than $2 billion in market capitalization. Market cap numbers were taken at the end of polling in March. To achieve Most Honored Company in the Mid-Cap and small cap ranking, companies must receive a weighted score of 20 or more points across the seven categories in the combined, buy-side and sell-side rankings.
Most Honored Companies were also calculated using all companies, regardless of market cap or sector, for the following countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, and Peru.
To be eligible for inclusion on the 2021 Latin America Executive Team, a company must be headquartered or have operational or executive headquarters in the region. We keep confidential the identities of the survey respondents to ensure their continuing cooperation. Voters must meet eligibility requirements, and winners must achieve a minimum vote count. All ballots are subject to review by our Research Operations Group.