BTG Pactual Said to Hire Bolsa’s Artigas for Mexico

Banco BTG Pactual SA (BBTG11), the Brazilian investment bank led by billionaire Andre Esteves, has hired a top executive from the Mexican stock exchange to lead the firm’s operations in the country, a person familiar with the move said.

Javier Artigas, outgoing chief of strategic planning at Bolsa Mexicana de Valores SAB, will become the country head for Sao Paulo-based BTG Pactual as it expands in Latin America’s second-biggest economy, said the person, who declined to be identified because the details haven’t been made public.

Artigas is in charge of new listings at the exchange, where he also helped create products including the country’s first real estate investment trust. He previously led the Mexican brokerage of Zurich-based UBS AG. (UBSN)

He plans to leave his current post next month, the exchange said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Roberto Gavaldon, a spokesman for the exchange, declined to comment beyond the statement. Artigas and a BTG official also declined to comment on the move.

BTG Pactual was the first stand-alone investment bank to go public in Brazil, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan J. Levin in Mexico City at jlevin20@bloomberg.net; Cristiane Lucchesi in Sao Paulo at clucchesi5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net; David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net