Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Funcef, Brazil’s third-biggest pension fund, plans to boost its stock holdings to take advantage of the nation’s economic rebound and record-low interest rates, the fund’s president said.

Funcef, the pension fund for workers at state-owned bank Caixa Economica Federal, wants to raise its equity holdings to 40 percent from 35 percent, said Guilherme Lacerda. Funcef has about 13 billion reais ($7 billion) invested in Brazilian shares out of a total 37 billion reais in assets.

“We plan to increase our equity holdings,” said Lacerda, in a phone interview from Brasilia. “We may look into companies we already have a stake.”

Funcef will consider buying more shares of companies such as Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s state-controlled oil company, and JBS SA, the world’s largest meatpacker, he said.

“We will consider buying Petrobras’s shares in an eventual share offering,” Lacerda said. “We will look into JBS’s offering and may invest in it as we are one of the company’s controlling shareholders.”

Petrobras this week announced plans to sell shares to finance development of the country’s offshore oil fields. JBS SA’s U.S. unit will likely hold a planned initial public offering this month, Marcus Vinicius Pratini de Moraes, a member of the company’s managing board, said in August.

Brazil’s Bovespa index has jumped 51 percent this year on speculation low rates and a rebound in commodity prices will pull Latin America’s biggest economy out of its first recession since 2003. The central bank has cut the nation’s benchmark interest rate to 8.75 percent to spur grow after the global financial crisis reduced the availability of credit.

The fund has 8 percent of its assets invested in real estate and the rest in fixed income, most of it Brazilian bonds.

To contact the reporter on this story: Francisco Marcelino in Sao Paulo at mdeoliveira@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 4, 2009 16:35 EDT