|
 Brazil's BNDES (Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social - National Bank for Economic and Social Development) posted net profit of 4.1 billion Brazilian reais (US$ 2.5 billion) in the first half of 2008. It was the second highest profit for a six-month period in the history of the bank.
The highest profit to date, of 4.4 billion reais (US$ 2.7 billion), was recorded in the first half last year. The figures were disclosed by the press office of the bank.
The head of the Accountancy Department at the BNDES, Vânia Borgerth, stated that the result in the first half of 2007 "was impacted by two extraordinary events." The bank had anticipated settlement of export financing contracts, which generated revenues of 650 million reais (US$ 401.1 billion), and also had a credit recovery, which led to a reversal of provision of 1.2 billion reais (US$ 740.5 million).
"This year, we also had a credit recovery, but it totaled to only 415 million reais (US$ 256.1 million)."
According to Vânia, accumulated profit in the first half this year was influenced by the result of the equity portfolio of subsidiary BNDES Shares (BNDESPar).
"The BNDES seized some good moments in the market, made some disposals, received dividends and interest on the capital of the companies it invests in. All of that, coupled with the equity pick-up result, led the partnership portfolio result to contribute significantly to the overall result that we achieved."
Equity contributions reached 4.8 billion reais (US$ 2.9 billion), representing growth of 111.7% over the first half last year. Due to the high quality of the financing portfolio, the insolvency rates of BNDES were quite modest.
"The bank never had such low insolvency rates. They answered to only 0.02% of the total financing portfolio, which totals 182 billion reais (US$ 112.3 billion). This is the lowest insolvency rate we have ever had," he said.
BNDES' net assets at the end of the first half this year stood at 28.8 billion reais (US$ 17.7 billion). Under the regulations of the Central Bank of Brazil, the result raises the bank's reference equity up to 47.8 billion reais (US$ 29.4 billion), as against 41.5 billion reais (US$ 25.6 billion) in 2007.
Total assets of the BNDES system reached 222.8 billion reais (US$ 137.4 billion) in June this year. The figure represents growth of 9.9% over the result recorded in December last year.
ABr
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.