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00:00:17.519Welcome everyone to another episode of the Nearshore Cafe Podcast.
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00:00:19.519I'm your host, Brian Sampson.
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00:00:28.399And if you are interested in the broader landscape in Latin America, this is going to be a great episode for you.
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00:00:31.920We've got some real superstars here from KPMG.
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00:00:33.520I'll introduce them in a second.
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00:00:43.840First, let me thank our sponsor, Plug Technologies, PLUGG, a great way to connect talent from all over Latin America with growing US businesses.
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00:00:45.600Let me introduce our guest here.
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00:00:53.759We've got JP Trio, who's the Deal Advisory Partner for KPMG and the regional advisory leader for KPMG Americas.
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00:00:59.759And we have Alan Riddell, head of Deal Advisory for Brazil and South America at KPMG Brazil.
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00:01:00.640Welcome guys.
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00:01:01.840Thanks so much for joining us.
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00:01:02.719Thank you for having us.
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00:01:10.640So I wanted to really get into the broader landscape, like what's going on.
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00:01:14.239I think you guys have done a lot of reporting on this subject.
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00:01:21.519So maybe we can start with uh JP giving us the broader, you know, 30,000-foot view.
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00:01:28.000And also answer this question: are you more optimistic in January 2026, January 2025?
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00:01:29.200Great, great question.
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00:01:33.280I would say that generally speaking, the answer to that question is yes.
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00:01:42.560We conducted a survey recently of 400 executives around the globe who have experience investing in Latin America.
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00:01:49.599And there was a significant increase in confidence level and optimism about in Latin America.
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00:02:08.000Part of the reason that that that exists, that sense of optimism is there now, is because after many years of investing in the region, investors have become more sophisticated, understand the inherent risk of investing in the region, and have learned from those experiences.
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00:02:11.439So they have a view of a much more confidence going into the region.
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00:02:15.439Latin America historically has been, let's call it volatile.
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00:02:23.039But that experience really lends itself to having a more sophisticated global MA strategy and approach.
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00:02:28.800And so we're seeing that optimism from our research.
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00:02:38.800The other thing that I think lends itself to positive feelings towards investing in the region is that there are some very attractive investment opportunities in the region.
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00:02:58.080And I'm sure we'll get into it as part of this discussion, but in sectors such as infrastructure, technology, energy, financial services, these are these are sectors that are expected to grow and where there are a number of opportunities in the region for foreign investors.
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00:02:59.599Yeah, and what do you think, Alan?
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00:03:10.319Yeah, I mean, if we look at the uh, you know, to to look at the trends, what what we're seeing is there's a slight uptick of of the volume of deals uh in in the region.
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00:03:31.919When I I I was just discussing earlier today the numbers that we compiled here for December closing the year, uh we're the rhythm of of deals, we're on a run rate for specifically for Brazil here, which is about 70% of the total volume here of deals happening in at least in the South America region.
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00:03:36.240We're running at about just over 300 deals per quarter.
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00:03:39.199So that's you know, just over 300.
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00:03:47.919So it it went down actually to around, you know, two 230, 250, you know, the the lower 200s per per quarter.
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00:03:51.360Now we're we're it's ticking, it's ticking up to the 300.
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00:03:58.159It's still well below the the record levels we had in 21 and 22 post-COVID.
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00:04:00.639But uh it is it is improving.
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00:04:04.400And and I'd like to just touch on the point that JP mentioned.
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00:04:12.159You know, there's there's some very interesting deals, very attractive deals that are being done and are available to be developed here.
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00:04:16.720As a result of you know, several years of of now high interest rates.
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00:04:22.720If you look at Brazil specifically, 15% is the local uh base rate.
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00:04:27.279And the markets add the spread, interest rates are really, really high.
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00:04:30.240The interest expense the companies are having to pay really high.
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00:04:53.839So that's making that's allowing for the larger or uh larger and unlevered groups to you know just look at great opportunities to evaluate and and acquire companies that perhaps have a little bit more leverage or don't have access to capital, but have a good product, have a good business, and and add an attractive valuation.
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00:04:57.360So it's it's becomes a very interesting opportunity there.
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00:05:00.560Obviously, it's it's a heightened risk environment as well.
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00:05:07.040So as we're moving forward to looking at the reduction of interest rates and you know, a little bit less risk.
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00:05:11.199I think the tendency is to have an acceleration in the volume of deals.
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00:05:26.560And I I would add just one thing the the locals have have increased their share in the volume of deals, but we are seeing the the foreigners uh you know uh get their act together, yeah, especially from the US, but also from Europe.
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00:05:40.000We've had a lot of investments coming from Asia, and you know, they kind of you know became you know, you know, more and more relevant to the expense of US investors and European investors, but now we're seeing it balanced back, perhaps.
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00:05:43.199So yeah, I I would totally agree with JP.
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00:05:50.800Uh and I think we we we we should have a very good year uh coming up uh uh in 26 and 27 for M ⁇ A activities.
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00:06:00.480Yeah, I was gonna say um it's been nothing but volatile from very bullish years to about as dead as it gets, you know, in 2023.
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00:06:20.959I wanted to ask about um maybe like the macro attractiveness of Latin America, and if you think the rest of the world is less attractive, um, and that's why there's there's interest in Latin America or Latin America is just so interesting right now that it would have attracted uh investment anyway.
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00:06:24.160Yeah, I'll I'll I'll share my thoughts on that.
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00:06:36.720Certainly as if you look at kind of the volatility in the world since, let's say, the last three, four years, the the volatility in in Latin America maybe looks a little less volatile.
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00:06:44.240If you think about the the economic stability of the region, it has performed fairly well.
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00:06:50.160Uh of course you have to look at it uh country by country, but you're seeing signs of stability.
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00:06:59.519The other thing that I think is driving some of this attractiveness is that governments are taking more actions to attract foreign investment.
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00:07:02.639I think Argentina is a good example.
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00:07:12.959The administration there has implemented this large investment incentive regime to attract and protect foreign investors who come into the market.
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00:07:19.439And since that has happened, you've seen a considerable increase in A activity in Argentina.
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00:07:31.839And so, and there are other examples like that where you see political shifts being more pro-business and seeing the reaction and correlation to higher FDI into the country.
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00:07:35.120So certainly seeing more stable signs in Latin America.
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00:07:45.759And when you compare again to the turbulence that we're seeing in other parts, whether you think about US and China relations, whether you think about the Russia-Ukraine war, Latin America looks a little bit more attractive.
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00:07:46.800Yeah, yeah.
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00:08:01.920I also wanted to um uh dive a little more into what you said about political stability and you know, maybe maybe some more pro-business as the region, you know, kind of shifts back and forth between left, right, left, right.
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00:08:07.199How much does that impact the desire of especially US capital in Latin America?
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00:08:09.120Maybe I'll ask this one to Alan.
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00:08:10.079Right.
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00:08:13.120Um, yeah, okay, I'll give it a try here, JP.
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00:08:21.680I think, you know, the the from my point of view here, city in São Paulo in Brazil, we're yeah, we're we're we have a left-wing government.
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00:08:58.080But one thing that has called my attention here is that they have learnt, they have managed, they have learned that they need to make a an attractive proposition to attract capital if they want to see infrastructure being developed, if they want to see several, several of the investments that they have realized they don't have the money to do themselves, and therefore they need to attract the private sector to come in and step in and invest in roads, invest in water and sanitation, let's say general infrastructure to improve the quality and the efficiency of the services and uh bring this benefit to the population.
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00:09:03.600I think they have finally understood that this is necessary and it can work really well.
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00:09:04.960It can work really well.
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00:09:07.360And so that this is something that has changed.
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00:09:12.399If you look back, you know, five, ten years, maybe the resistance was was much bigger.
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00:09:49.679But now they've realized this and and and actually they are working hand in hand very actively with the multilateral institutions such as IFC, IDB, World Bank, that are working together with several governments, both on the federal, state, and and also on the municipal levels, developing investment programs, developing the regulatory framework for investments, doing all the market analysis and getting everything prepared so that the concessions and privatizations can be offered with a very high quality information and structure to increase the attractiveness to the private sector.
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00:09:54.879So I think, Brian, that's that's something that has called my attention and I think has been very positive.
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00:10:04.399So even though we have had a lot of, you know, left an increase in left-wing governments, they have actually understood the importance of working with private capital.
00:10:04.639 -->
00:10:18.000So, you know, maybe that has been very positive, perhaps for the infrastructure sectors and some specific sectors to the detriment of others, like consumer products, maybe are are not so subject to government programs.
00:10:18.320 -->
00:10:21.840But I think that, you know, this has been a huge improvement.
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00:10:26.399The the local big players have taken advantage of that, have moved in.
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00:10:38.639But but it is interesting to see that several sovereign wealth funds, global infrastructure funds, and global pension funds are actually very active in the region, not only Brazil, in the Andean region.
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00:10:50.240And we're seeing now, JP mentioned Argentina, we're seeing you know a lot of big players getting ready to do bit very big investments in the ENR energy and natural resource sector.
00:10:50.480 -->
00:10:53.679So anyway, but so anyway, I think it's very attractive.
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00:11:00.399And indeed, we are seeing more right-wing governments in the new elections that are being held in several of the countries.
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00:11:07.360So it is the pendulum, the pendulum is tilting back to more right-wing governments, which I think will accelerate this.
00:11:07.519 -->
00:11:15.840I think it was interesting to see the left-wing governments under coming to understand uh the situation, how they need to collaborate with private capital.
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00:11:20.080And now we will see an acceleration as the pendulum moves to the right.
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00:11:28.480Again, maybe that's another back backdrop here for our optimism regarding the development of investments and MA.
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00:11:38.879Yeah, and maybe to put this simply, you know, often uh it doesn't matter if you're in the US or Latin America or elsewhere, there's this push-pool between labor and business.
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00:11:43.679And Latin America's often been a very pro-labor part of the world.
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00:11:52.639Have you seen governments shift policies from less favorable towards labor and more favorable towards business to attract more investment?
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00:11:54.320Maybe I'll ask this to JP.
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00:11:58.639I think we do, I think we do see some of that from time to time.
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00:12:07.039You know, I think one of the things that came out of our survey, we were interviewing and surveying very experienced investors.
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00:12:22.480So these are companies and private equity investors that have kind of seen the cycles in Latin America and have kind of built a resilient strategy towards how to protect themselves towards these types of shifts.
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00:12:27.600You know, Alan mentioned about what sectors are at greater risk than others.
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00:12:37.200The other area that investors are now kind of more experienced at is how to structure the deals to minimize that risk as well.
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00:12:45.200For example, having very strong local partners in order to kind of help minimize that risk who are well connected in the in the business community.
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00:12:54.960So so I think I think while while we see different shifts along the government, investors are also kind of anticipating that and have that experience to deal with that.
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00:13:01.120Yeah, I think there's a a concept shift from risk avoidance to risk architecture.
00:13:01.440 -->
00:13:03.440Could you talk more about that too, JP?
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00:13:16.159Yeah, I I think when I think about risk architecture and and how to how to not only get a deal done, but how to ensure that risk is minimized after the deal closes.
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00:13:26.480Um and creating a plan to achieve the objectives of the acquisitions and to create the value from that acquisition.
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00:13:30.080And it's not so much about now winning the deal.
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00:13:44.960It's really more about what is the long-term plan to create value and starting that process very early on in the due diligence process of planning that out and identifying the areas that might be a risk towards achieving those objectives.
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00:13:55.039Alan, is there maybe an example if we were to micro this in Brazil, of the risk architecture and how that is maybe playing out in Brazil?
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00:13:55.600Yeah.
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00:14:10.000Well, I think, I mean, so it'd certainly be a very been a very interesting evolution of this, the risk identification and and and de-risking uh the deals and and plugging in the value creation, right?
00:14:10.159 -->
00:14:20.399So that the due diligence process has become much more sophisticated compared to to let's see, again, five, five years ago, ten years ago, it has become much more sophisticated.
00:14:20.559 -->
00:14:57.919The teams do bring in, in addition to the finance and tax regular analysis to identify the contingencies and the regular risk, is to understanding the strategy right at the beginning, looking at the integration, what the integration will look like, what are the risks of integrating the company, and also bringing in all the value creation opportunities and synergy evaluations and the creation of more value once the assets are integrated and you know how you're going to do all this value creation, then planning all the implementation afterwards because the the that that's where the value is really going to be created, right?
00:14:58.080 -->
00:15:04.639Not on the not in the not necessarily in the beginning of the plowpoint planning, but the integration is really key.
00:15:04.720 -->
00:15:17.759So we've we've got really we have developed actually, you know, the market has developed very big integration capabilities to exactly help execute and deliver both the de-risking and the value creation uh for the deals.
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00:15:26.000I I you know, so I think when we look at the bigger groups where the complexity is bigger, I I can't give you specific names, Brian.
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00:15:31.519I'm I'm I'm not allowed to give her specific names, but we are constantly working here.
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00:15:36.799And there's a very big deal that's going on right now that has several carve outs.
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00:15:38.240I'll put it this way, right?
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00:15:42.000So, you know, big conglomerate, several different businesses.
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00:15:51.279The plan is, you know, and it starts with on the sell side, it starts with reviewing the portfolio of businesses, what makes most sense, what makes less sense.
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00:16:08.559Okay, let's look at what how to carve out what we plan to sell and get that ready, you know, and do the some kind of planning, you know, and and and and look at all the potential this business can be generated under another strategy, another model, and get that ready for the for the buy side.
00:16:08.639 -->
00:16:21.840And then the buy side will have to do some some kind of similar planning and review of looking at the carve out how it was done, seeing how that fits into his model and how he's gonna scale that up, and what are the synergies of bringing that business together?
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00:16:39.679So it has become more interesting where what JP mentioned, you know, getting it the due diligence has expanded to get in much earlier, looking at the risks and opportunities and value creation, executing the deal, and then doing the integration and value creation afterwards.
00:16:39.840 -->
00:16:55.200So that is something that's makes all this business even more exciting for us practitioners that are here today, um, and and seeing that roll out, and especially in the cross-border deals where we have the more sophisticated investors uh that has have this view.
00:16:55.360 -->
00:16:56.720You know, that has been increasing.
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00:17:00.000We do expect it to increase quite a lot.
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00:17:19.279And Alan, if you could also just talk more specifically about deal structures in uh places like Brazil and other adjacent countries, and maybe how complicated they get compared to the US structures with earnouts, seller financing, you know, other other components.
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00:17:20.160Yeah.
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00:17:21.599Yeah.
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00:17:27.519Uh I I think I think one one of the I think one thing that we have seen here in Brazil, two things have happened.
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00:17:35.039And I think one big driver here that is pushing for these changes is not only the risk, but the high interest rates, for example.
00:17:35.200 -->
00:17:39.039So we have seen, you know, it's the difference in valuation has increased.
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00:17:42.240The the sell side wants to sell at a higher valuation.
00:17:42.319 -->
00:17:45.759Perhaps the valuation he had before interest rates were went up.
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00:17:49.039The buyer is looking at, you know, there are not so many buyers.
00:17:49.119 -->
00:17:52.319And uh, you know, if I'm discounting at a higher rate, the valuation is lower.
00:17:52.480 -->
00:17:55.599How are you gonna close this gap and create a deal zone?
00:17:55.759 -->
00:18:11.519And the solution is exactly be more creative in structuring the deal, how the payout is is going to work, you know, not necessarily having you know the full payment at the beginning and structuring a payout that could even be higher, but contingent to performance.
00:18:11.680 -->
00:18:19.279So we have seen this move as a necessity to help close the gap and have the deals closing.
00:18:19.519 -->
00:18:33.119But that also means that the sellers also are being dragged in, uh, you know, to perhaps stay a little bit longer and help in the transition and uh the integration and the development of the asset after the deal.
00:18:33.440 -->
00:18:36.799But um I think that that's how it has been evolving.
00:18:37.119 -->
00:18:53.119But again, I think as we move forward looking into the future, Brian, you know, um as we have more investors coming in, which is what we're the trend that we're seeing, we're seeing the lower cost of capital, not only locally, but the lower cost of capital in US dollars.
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00:19:01.680Maybe I I think we I do expect people to be more aggressive, uh, and perhaps with a broader portfolio of options to to be working on.
00:19:01.759 -->
00:19:03.839So it's gonna be interesting to see that play out.
00:19:04.079 -->
00:19:05.039Yeah, that makes sense.
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00:19:08.480JP, we're in uh Trump term number two.
00:19:08.640 -->
00:19:14.559And if we've seen anything, there's winners and losers, you know, in all these different administrations.
00:19:14.720 -->
00:19:22.000So we've seen a bigger push towards Latin America, you know, as maybe China and India have have been hurt.
00:19:22.240 -->
00:19:26.720Can you talk about what that means for supply chain manufacturing?
00:19:26.880 -->
00:19:29.920Are companies looking to acquire closer to home?
00:19:30.079 -->
00:19:31.039What what's going on there?
00:19:31.440 -->
00:19:42.880Certainly the the volatility that we've seen in trade relations and tariff policy, I think net net have had a positive effect on Latin America.
00:19:43.839 -->
00:19:45.599Uh for a few reasons.
00:19:45.680 -->
00:19:50.400Uh one is because it's closer to it's closer to the US.
00:19:50.960 -->
00:19:58.880It is seen as, you know, from a fragility standpoint of a supply chain, the distance makes it a little bit more amenable.
00:19:59.119 -->
00:20:07.279Um and and and and a real viable alternative to Asia supply, Asia supply, supply chains that are dependent on on Asia.
00:20:07.519 -->
00:20:16.319The other thing, as you mentioned, and I think there's a there's been a trend towards improving economic relations between the US and Latin America.
00:20:16.400 -->
00:20:26.319And so kind of facilitating the ability to have operations in Latin America supporting US businesses.
00:20:26.480 -->
00:20:43.279And if you think about the time that it takes to to set up operations greenfield, companies don't have, you know, particularly public companies, they don't have that kind of time before they can start to see the benefits or or address some of the issues that they have in their supply chain.
00:20:43.359 -->
00:20:50.480And so acquisition is a natural option for them to accelerate addressing some of those supply chain issues.
00:20:50.720 -->
00:21:07.519We're also seeing, and that's part of the reason why, you know, I mentioned infrastructure as a sector that is seen as growing in the region, the infrastructure that is needed to support near-shoring operations is something that certainly we've been seeing investments in.
00:21:07.680 -->
00:21:12.240We've private equity funds, raise funds to invest in exactly that.
00:21:12.400 -->
00:21:21.039And so those trends are certainly, I think, correlated and and why I think driving some of the optimism that we're seeing uh for MA in the region.
00:21:21.279 -->
00:21:27.920Yeah, I guess there's the old adage of buy versus build, but sometimes you want to buy when the iron's hot, right?
00:21:28.160 -->
00:21:32.960Do you feel like there's some sentiment there of it's that this is the time to do it?
00:21:33.039 -->
00:21:35.680So we got to accelerate our our action here.
00:21:35.920 -->
00:21:37.200We are we are seeing that.
00:21:37.359 -->
00:21:40.319We are seeing we are seeing companies be more aggressive.
00:21:40.640 -->
00:21:46.079I can think of a few examples around the whole kind of this energy transition that's happening.
00:21:46.240 -->
00:21:49.039If you take think about data centers, for example, yeah.
00:21:49.279 -->
00:21:55.359We've seen some very interesting investment thesis around building data centers in Latin America.
00:21:55.519 -->
00:21:59.519So I think that's a testament to to some of the optimism that we're seeing.
00:21:59.680 -->
00:21:59.839Yeah.
00:22:00.079 -->
00:22:00.160Yeah.
00:22:00.319 -->
00:22:07.680And maybe I can just th that is probably we we hosted an an event, a private equity event a couple of months ago.
00:22:07.839 -->
00:22:20.240Um and I I I was one of the moderators in the panel and I I had the opportunity to to uh to have a couple of uh actually one sovereign wealth fund and a uh large pension, a global pension fund.
00:22:20.640 -->
00:22:26.960And my question was, what's the hottest topic for you guys right now looking into 26?
00:22:27.119 -->
00:22:35.279And it's infrastructure, and specifically they mentioned the data centers, for example, and the infrastructure related to data centers, energy.
00:22:35.519 -->
00:22:40.960So we have abundant energy here in Latin America and very renewable energy, by the way.
00:22:41.119 -->
00:22:48.799Um, and and and the labor, so the quality of labor has this was a previous you were asking about labor a little bit before, Brian.
00:22:49.039 -->
00:22:56.240So labor, although we we still have a lot of improvement to do in the cost of labor, but the quality of labor has improved.
00:22:56.400 -->
00:23:04.400The level of education, the the tech savviness of the population, the very tech savvies, you know, it's these are good ingredients.
00:23:04.559 -->
00:23:13.680These are all, if you put them all together, they're they're all very positive ingredients to to put together and uh you know move forward with these investments in the near shore.
00:23:13.920 -->
00:23:24.720Not only I like the name of the cafe, the near shore cafe, but also, again, what what JP mentioned, a more friendly shore as well compared to further away shores.
00:23:25.119 -->
00:23:27.599So you have a combination of these two things.
00:23:27.920 -->
00:23:29.599Yeah, and staying with you, Alan.
00:23:29.759 -->
00:23:40.319Um, the the post-merger complexities, especially getting the right culture, getting the right people on board, bringing multiple countries together.
00:23:40.559 -->
00:23:48.640Can you talk more about that and what should buyers be aware of when they're integrating in Latin America, especially when it comes to people?
00:23:48.880 -->
00:23:49.119Right.
00:23:49.200 -->
00:24:06.000Uh Brian, that's I think that is uh that is a when I look around, not only Latin America, the people and culture issues are super important, but they are pretty much, you know, it's not a regional, it doesn't, there's not too much regional, the challenges are pretty much the same.
00:24:06.160 -->
00:24:25.440I think perhaps you know that the the big when we're talking about cross-border deals, I think there's a much bigger uh cultural challenge to overcome and and uh you know get the different uh uh people to understand exactly what is the new culture in the cross in a cross-border deal.
00:24:25.599 -->
00:24:29.920It's already difficult when it's a local deal, you know, with two different cultures.
00:24:30.079 -->
00:24:40.960We were involved in a big uh retailer, sort of shopping centers without names here, merged, and one was a you know super modern, uh, you know, tech-savvy culture.
00:24:41.119 -->
00:24:45.839The other one was a very classic, old school uh team.
00:24:46.000 -->
00:24:48.079And you know, we have to build a new culture.
00:24:48.240 -->
00:24:48.799What is the new?
00:24:49.039 -->
00:24:51.119It's not even you know, you don't have to adapt one to the other.
00:24:51.359 -->
00:24:57.599We create, we have to create a new culture uh and get everybody to buy in and adapt to the new culture.
00:24:57.759 -->
00:25:07.759So I think you know it that's always a very uh uh interesting uh challenge to be working on in the integration, planning, and and especially in the integration.
00:25:07.920 -->
00:25:17.200And when it's cross-border and you go into places where English is not so well spoken, yeah, it's definitely a bigger challenge.
00:25:17.680 -->
00:25:24.319Some I I think some countries, English is a second language and it's you know very, very well spoken in other countries.
00:25:24.480 -->
00:25:30.559So really depending on which country you go into, that can be a bigger or or less challenge.
00:25:30.799 -->
00:25:36.799But uh always a always a great uh section of the deal to to look into and plan and work on.
00:25:37.039 -->
00:25:37.359Yeah.
00:25:37.599 -->
00:25:50.240In the uh post-merger world, do you see any um blind spots in having an executive do an expat assignment versus say hire the country manager locally?
00:25:50.400 -->
00:25:54.640Are there best practices or big mistakes that you've seen for both of you?
00:25:54.880 -->
00:25:59.359Yeah, I mean, I think that usually what works best is a combination of both.
00:25:59.599 -->
00:26:12.960At least that's what we've seen, is that you want an executive that has kind of the buyer company's culture practices to make sure that that is being implemented in the local company.
00:26:13.039 -->
00:26:20.960But at the same time, it's very important to be very cognizant of the local culture, the local business practices.
00:26:21.200 -->
00:26:28.000And so you need that local leader as well to help bring along um the local laborer.
00:26:28.160 -->
00:26:33.279And so those are those are you know, combination of both is generally what I see works works best.
00:26:33.599 -->
00:26:35.039Yeah, that reminds me of a deal.
00:26:35.279 -->
00:26:36.480Sorry to jump in.
00:26:36.559 -->
00:26:39.839This was we're there's uh another deal here.
00:26:40.000 -->
00:26:42.480It's actually a greenfield, so it's not a brownfield.
00:26:42.559 -->
00:26:45.599They're building it, it's a big international hotel chain.
00:26:45.680 -->
00:26:58.559They're building a an iconic, they've just built an iconic new hotel in Sao Paulo, and the general manager was brought from one of the international operations, but he's a Brazilian that was working abroad.
00:26:58.960 -->
00:27:02.000So that's a genuine two-in-one, like JP.
00:27:02.480 -->
00:27:06.559That's the best combination, you know, have both in one.
00:27:07.440 -->
00:27:21.279He can have the you know, he has a broad experience of the uh headquarters and has the local insights of the culture and the regulation and the business practices and you know the pitfalls.
00:27:21.519 -->
00:27:48.000Uh so I think it's it's swinging back this pendulum, you know, to incorporate more and more of the local local management component that has become more and more sophisticated, be it because of you know, opportunities to be integrating to other markets globally, or or just the local markets have also evolved a lot and have become more complex, more capital, the capital markets in not only Brazil, but in the region as a whole.
00:27:48.160 -->
00:27:51.920In Brazil, it has accelerated a lot in the last uh 10 years.
00:27:52.160 -->
00:28:02.960So that brings a lot of knowledge and expertise to the local management here that is very valuable when when looking at you know staffing and and planning in the deals.
00:28:03.200 -->
00:28:03.440Yeah.
00:28:03.599 -->
00:28:10.000Well, as we start to wrap up, I wanted to give each of you a chance to offer maybe a final takeaway.
00:28:10.160 -->
00:28:19.920If there's something you wanted to hammer home we talked about earlier, or a brand new idea we didn't get to, uh please take this time to uh share your your key takeaway with our audience.
00:28:20.240 -->
00:28:29.440Yeah, I mean I think and we've talked about it a lot, but I I don't think you can overstate how important it is to have boots on the ground when doing a deal.
00:28:29.599 -->
00:28:38.640You know, one big mistake that I believe investors or multinationals make is looking at Latin America as one place, one region.
00:28:39.519 -->
00:28:48.799Each country has its own distinct business culture, its own regulatory framework, its own tax uh regulations.
00:28:49.039 -->
00:28:56.559And so having a generic approach to your investments could lead to a lot of a lot of risk and and issues.
00:28:56.799 -->
00:29:10.079Um so you know, having that local, not just local launch, but local partnerships, you know, aligning yourself with the right partners locally to to protect the investment, to help grow that investment is key to success to success.
00:29:10.319 -->
00:29:12.400And Alan, your your takeaway for our audience.
00:29:12.640 -->
00:29:13.039Yeah.
00:29:13.200 -->
00:29:19.039Well, I perhaps just to compliment here, JP, that I think that is a really important takeaway.
00:29:19.200 -->
00:29:50.000And I I would add that, you know, bring in, in addition to working, you know, with the deep local intelligence and teams, bring in the exercise all the expertise of, you know, being do all your homework, you know, do all the analysis, do, you know, don't just focus on the basic due diligence, you know, do the extra miles both before the deal and after the deal to make sure that you get the right planning, using all this local expertise, but bringing this international mindset of you know de-risking and value creation.
00:29:50.240 -->
00:29:56.559You kept, you know, this is the formula for success, I think, to in today's opportunities in today's markets.
00:29:56.640 -->
00:30:02.559That if you do that well, you know, the chances are much higher of success and then creating value.
00:30:02.880 -->
00:30:03.839Couldn't have said it better.
00:30:04.160 -->
00:30:12.240Alan JP, it's been a real honor having you on the Near Shore Cafe podcast to talk about Latin America, MA landscape.
00:30:12.319 -->
00:30:16.799This podcast is sponsored by Plug Technologies, L U G G dot tech.
00:30:17.119 -->
00:30:26.559And Alan and JP, uh, if our audience wants to uh get a copy of the report or reach out to you directly, is there um uh a best way to do that?
00:30:26.799 -->
00:30:30.160Yeah, you can you can find it on the KPMG uh website.
00:30:30.480 -->
00:30:31.839That's the easiest way to do it.
00:30:32.559 -->
00:30:33.119Perfect.
00:30:33.279 -->
00:30:37.359Well, thank you guys again, and uh to our audience, we will see you next time.
00:30:37.519 -->
00:30:37.839Take care.
00:30:38.079 -->
00:30:38.160Thanks.
00:30:38.559 -->
00:30:39.039Thanks, Brian.
00:30:39.440 -->
00:30:39.839Take care.
00:30:40.000 -->
00:30:40.240Bye.
