Jefferies Financial Group Inc. opened an office in São Paulo, Brazil, as the investment bank pushes ahead with its expansion plans in Latin America.
(Bloomberg) — Jefferies Financial Group Inc. opened an office in São Paulo, Brazil, as the investment bank pushes ahead with its expansion plans in Latin America.
The firm hired Alejandro Guevara from JPMorgan Chase & Co. as head of Brazil investment banking, the bank said in a note to Bloomberg News. Guevara, who’ll be based in the new office, was at JPMorgan for more than three decades, most recently as global chair of investment banking. Prior to that, he was head of the bank’s Latin America global corporate and investment banking teams.
Jefferies also appointed four managing directors to lead its equity research coverage of Latin America, it said. They include John Ferreira as head of Latin American equities, as well as Pedro Baptista and Íñigo Vega who all joined from Nau Securities. Additionally, Jefferies said Alejandro Demichelis will focus on energy, infrastructure and industrials companies.
Founded in 1962, Jefferies started as a single office in Los Angeles, California focused on trading institutional equities. Now, the New York-based firm has more than 30 offices across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. It’s expanded its services to include investment banking, equities, fixed income, asset management and wealth management.
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The bank has been focused on hiring and expanding across the globe as it seeks new opportunities amid a slowdown in deals. The firm added 21 new managing directors since the beginning of fiscal 2023, it said during earnings last month.
“There continue to be changes and developments at some of our primary competitors, which are creating further market opportunity for our Jefferies platform and allowing us to recruit talent,” Chief Executive Officer Richard Handler and President Brian Friedman said as the bank reported second-quarter results. “Our strong financial foundation and culture is allowing us to play prudent offense in this otherwise challenging environment.”
Jefferies total assets were nearly $54 billion at the end of May and it had 5,335 employees globally.
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