Ciro Matuo & team Itaú BBA
The buy side says: “Matuo’s insights and analyses are second to none.”
After a year in second place, the Itaú BBA trio helmed by São Paulo–based Ciro Matuo, 38, reclaims the top spot. “Matuo and his team stand out by being easily accessible and fast to answer questions,” asserts one backer. In May 2010 the analysts reiterated their buy recommendation on the 7.5 percent May 2020 notes of Fibria Celulose, a pulp-and-paper-products manufacturer headquartered in São Paulo that was created the previous year through the merger of Aracruz Celulose and Votorantim Celulose e Papel. Matuo and his associates believed that the bonds, issued in April 2010 at $99.136, would increase in value as the new company focused on improving profitability and selling noncore assets to reduce debt, which at the time of the reiteration stood at 4.7 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. In February 2011, Fibria announced that year-over-year net profit in the fourth quarter had more than quadrupled, from 35 million reais ($21.6 million)to R162 million; in May the company reported that net profit in the first quarter had catapulted from R9 million to R389 million, thanks largely to the R1.5 billion sale of its 50 percent stake in Consórcio Paulista de Papel e Celulose to its partner in the joint venture, Suzano Papel e Celulose. (The deal closed in February.) By the end of July, Fibria’s 2020 notes were trading in a range of $108 to $109, Matuo says, and the company had reduced its debt ratio to 3.2 times ebitda.
