Finance
Betting Against Lula Means Missing Out on Brazilian Bank’s 76% Return
- Banco do Brasil was among nation’s best performers in 2023
- Agriculture boom fuels gains, but risks appear on the horizon
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Brazil’s second-biggest bank handed shareholders returns of 76% last year, proving traders wrong who bet President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva would hurt the company’s performance by using it to juice the nation’s economy.
State-controlled Banco do Brasil was the best-performing bank on the benchmark Ibovespa index in 2023, posting a total return roughly 30 percentage points higher than Itau Unibanco Holding SA, the nation’s largest bank by assets. The performance gap is likely to continue this year, according to analysts’ forecasts.