SAO PAULO (Reuters) – The new CEO of Brazilian lender Bradesco, Marcelo Noronha, sees an open window for public offerings in the country next year, he said on Monday, mentioning falling interest rates in the United States and stronger growth in Brazil.
“This directly favors the stock market,” he said at a lunch with journalists, adding that the lender will announce the new management’s plans at the beginning of 2024, possibly in February.
Bradesco, the second-largest private lender in Brazil, elected Noronha at the end of November to replace outgoing CEO Octavio de Lazari Junior after five years, amid what it called an “absolutely challenging” market scenario.
Bradesco has faced a series of bad quarters recently, with a rise in defaults and squeezed profitability prompting a shift toward more cautious lending.
When questioned about the CEO swap, Bradesco’s chair of the board, Luiz Carlos Trabuco Cappi, said Noronha brings a new vision for the lender and has recognized leadership to run the bank’s transformation process.
Noronha said he has a positive view of the Brazilian economy, with the first quarter being the weakest and gross domestic product (GDP) expanding by around 2% next year.
Brazil “is on a good path to have stronger growth and a more positive overall scenario in 2024,” he said, though the last quarter should be the most relevant. “This pushes important growth into 2025.”
(Reporting by Paula Arend Laier; Writing by Peter Frontini; Editing by Kylie Madry)
