Know more about the BNDES Procap financing program for SMEs

BNDES has an interesting business capitalization program for SMEs like Equipment Manufacturers or Automotive Parts and Components suppliers, whose aim is to promote the capitalization of small, medium and large sizes up to a maximum of $ 300 million of gross operating revenue, set up as a corporation or limited. The operations are carried out through accredited financial institutions, and the duration of the program is up to December 31, 2012.

Eligible items:

• Payment / subscription of shares in a corporation manufacturers of capital goods, components and parts for its shareholders or its employees not shareholders. In the latter case, the value of payment / subscription should correspond to at least 25% of the company’s payroll, calculated on the last fiscal year, not counting the labor costs. The shares shall be common shares (ON) and preferred (PN), with 100% tag along rights.
• Payment of the share capital of limited companies manufacturers of capital goods, components and parts for its shareholders or its employees not shareholders. In the latter case, the value of the payment must match at least 25% of the company’s payroll, calculated on the last fiscal year, not counting the labor costs.
• Working capital for companies admitted to the program clients.
• Training expenses of limited companies, so they can meet specific requirements and needed to capitalize on this program.
• Merger and acquisition of companies in capital goods, components and parts, made ​​by companies established as a corporation or limited, with ROB up $ 300 million last year – since its capitalization promote the conditions and limits of the program .

More information, including interest rates and detailed conditions, is available at BrazBiz (BNDES Cartilha_Linhas de Financiamento_automotivo) and further details on the BNDES site (in Portuguese).

In Brazil, the industry associations such as FIEMG, CIESP, FIRJAN, ABIMAQ etc. or our consulting partners could support you as well.

President Rousseff: will protect strong domestic market

Brazil vowed on Tuesday to defend its domestic industry against unfair competition and slapped import tariffs on select Chinese steel products. It is the latest in a series of measures to defend struggling domestic manufacturers and help shield Latin America’s largest economy from the fallout of global financial turmoil.

The Latin American economic powerhouse will impose an anti-dumping tariff of $743 per tonne on steel pipes, the government’s foreign trade chamber said. The levy will be valid for five years.

The pipes are used in Brazil’s oil and gas industry, which is booming following big hydrocarbon discoveries in recent years.

The move is part of a broader effort by President Dilma Rousseff, who took office on Jan. 1, to get tough on imports and protect domestic jobs.

“(We) will never allow foreign goods using unfair competition against our products,” Rousseff said on a nationally televised address on the eve of Brazil’s Independence Day.

“In the current crisis our main weapon is expanding and defending our internal market,” she said.

Economic growth is expected to slow to just under 4 percent from 7.5 percent last year. But Rousseff said domestic consumer demand was still strong, in part due to record employment and wages.

Still, many Brazilian manufacturers have been losing market share at home and abroad to foreign competitors.

Industry grew only 0.2 percent in the second quarter, compared with overall economic growth of 0.8 percent from the previous quarter

Industry leaders say Brazil’s expensive currency and Chinese export subsidies are at fault.

Finance Minister Guido Mantega said last week that Brazil would fight back against any new round of quantitative easing in the United States by taking fresh measures to protect its currency.

Please see full article at Reuters.

Green investments in Brazil total 2,3 billion US$

São Paulo – The global private sector investment in green technologies and businesses totaled 2.4 billion US$ between 2007 and the first half of 2011, according to the study Transition Green Scoreboard, released yesterday by the Ethical Markets Media Network.
More than half of investments were directed to the renewable energy sector, which attracted nearly 1.5 billion US$.

In the transition to a cleaner and green economy, the second sector that drew the attention of investors is the efficiency and sustainable construction, with 339 billion dollars. Behind this sector is the research and development (258 billion US$), clean technologies (105 billion US$) and smart grid (161 billion US$).

By 2020, the study expects annual investments of around one billion US dollars. Not included in the amount are areas such as nuclear energy and biofuels produced from agricultural or food sources, the study considered unsustainable.

According to Hazel Henderson, president of Ethical Markets Media, the total investment is notable for having been achieved in times of economic uncertainty. “The twenty-first century is increasingly moving away from 300 years of dirty economy experienced so far. We are moving rapidly toward a cleaner economy, green and rich in information” the report states.

Find orginal text at Exame.

China’s Foton Motors to build truck factory in Brazil

Chinese automotive company Foton Motors, one of the world’s largest truck manufacturers, plans to invest US$500 million in building a factory in Brazil, according to a report from newspaper Folha de São Paulo.

The newspaper said that the company’s officials at the beginning of last wee visited the state of Goiás, where they looked at potential locations for the factory, and that the state of Pernambuco was another potential location for the Chinese factory.

The factory is expected to start operating in 2014, and will initially focus its production on so-called light goods trucks of 3, 6 and 9 tons.

Founded in August, 1996 and based in Beijing, the Beiqi Foton Motor Co. Manufactures light and heavy goods vehicles, agricultural tractors and a variety of machinery. In 2010 is set up a partnership with Daimler AG to manufacture Auman branded trucks in China.

Please find source at Macauhub.

Boticário will invest R$ 355 million in new plant and distribution center in Bahia

The Boticário Group (cosmetics) announced on Thursday, investments of 355 million reais in Bahia. Of the total, 240 million will be used to build a new plant in Bahia. The rest will be invested in a new distribution center. Today, the only center of the company is located Sao Paulo.

Four cities are candidates to receive the money: Camaçari, Feira de Santana, Simões Filho and Candeias. The governor of Bahia, Jaques Wagner, signed a memorandum of understanding with the company.Except for the makeup products that will just continue being manufactured in Pinhais (PR), all the group’s products are manufactured at the new plant, which will be built in the first half of 2012. The work term is 18 months. The unit will have capacity to produce 330 million units per year, against 250 million units annually produced at the plant in Paraná.

Bahia accounts for 30% of total company sales in the Northeast – where the group has an above-average growth in the rest of the country. “With the new plant will meet the north and northeast, and then we can also cover the Midwest,” says Grynbaum. “Today the average wait time to get a product in the Northeast is 12 days. With the new facility we hope that this period should be cut in half. “According to the entrepreneur, how to finance this expansion will be agreed by early 2012. “We are evaluating the structure to finance the works, but some will come from own resources and partly from banks willing to invest, such as BNDES.”

Please find full article in Portuguese at Exame.

Taxation on import of services to Brazil – ISS

I have observed that many companies care only about collecting the PIS and COFINS in imports of goods and forget that the imports of services also need to pay these taxes.

The PIS and COFINS on imports of services to Brazil and even the services provided outside of Brazil, but has economic effects on the companies business in Brazil.

According to the Internal Revenue Service of Brazil, the services from abroad are those that run in the importing country or are executed abroad but with economic result in the importing country.

The triggering event of these contributions is given in the remittance service provider located abroad and this figure should be focused on the rates of 1,65% and 7,60% for PIS and COFINS, respectively.

When you import services from abroad, you will also need to consider the collection of ISS (Service Tax), because the foreign service provider is not available to the taxation of Brazilian law. Thus, as laid down in Complementary Law No. 116/2003, the withholding and payment of the tax is responsibility of the buyer of the service.

This type of operation is very likely to occur with multinational companies where the headquarters are located abroad and a series of services such as consulting and advisory services are provided.

It is important to remember that the calculation basis of PIS and COFINS import service should cover the value of the ISS.

Companies can be credited of import related PIS and COFINS since the services have been used as inputs in the provision of services or producing goods for sale.