© Copyright Acquisition International 2025 - All Rights Reserved.

Article Image - Extraordinary Achievements
Posted 23rd October 2018

Extraordinary Achievements

Drawing on more than an aggregated 100 years of local investment experience in the Brazilian market, Prudent Group, through its innovative Prudent Investment Fund (PIF), offers investors a unique opportunity to move into this dynamic market. Having recently been awarded the firm Most Outstanding Hed

Mouse Scroll AnimationScroll to keep reading

Let us help promote your business to a wider following.

Extraordinary Achievements
Image

Drawing on more than an aggregated 100 years of local investment experience in the Brazilian market, Prudent Group, through its innovative Prudent Investment Fund (PIF), offers investors a unique opportunity to move into this dynamic market. Having recently been awarded the firm Most Outstanding Hedge Fund Manager – 2018, we profiled it to find out more.

Since 2014, Prudent Group has been managing the PIF and managed account relationships, and has flourished from a small enterprise into a renowned bastion of hedge fund management.

Initially, the focus was capitalizing on inefficiencies within Brazil’s capital markets and more specifically the daily challenges that Brazilian small to medium-sized enterprises (SME) face in respect to funding their working capital needs. Unlike their counterparts in the developed world, access to working capital is significantly restricted and costlier throughout Brazil. While the top tier of Brazilian companies readily has access to traditional banking services, even the highest-grade credits can expect to pay 10%+ per annum.

For SME’s, the cost of a bank line can be prohibitive and reach up to several percentage points per month. Part of this is due to the lack of competition, with the top five banks effectively controlling access to lending and focusing mainly on servicing the needs of the largest corporate entities.

This lack of competition and the inherent inefficiencies have led to the emergence of a robust alternative banking market, mainly through the development of the Brazilian receivables financing market, whose size is now estimated at around US$500Bn per annum. Short-term financing through the discounting of receivables (purchase orders), is nothing new in the world of trade finance, but the opportunity to enter this market in Brazil and offer a product to global external fund investors, is something that has taken the Prudent team many years of planning and careful implementation.

From the very beginning, the success of the venture has been based on attracting the best possible talent and building a unique operating platform. From modest beginnings in 2014, Prudent Group has expanded to three offices in Sao Paulo, one in Rio de Janeiro, and one in Porto Alegre boasting a local staff of approximately 150.

Over the years, the firm’s investment process has been centred around a banking model, with fail-safe levels of credit checks, transaction monitoring, and over-collateralization. All of the firm’s lending is short-term in nature, with loans on average maturing in 60 days. The loans are backed by the balance sheets of both the borrower, and the final purchaser of the product. Prudent does not rely on third parties to originate or purchase loans, instead their sales teams identify and recruit only the borrowers that meet their strict credit standards, after an exhaustive due diligence process.

Once these criteria have been met, only then will these candidates be short-listed and presented to the firm’s credit committee. Because of the over-collateralization of these loans and the group’s meticulous risk control process, its default rate has been marginal. This process has resulted in a four-year audited track record with mid-teens returns in U.S. dollars and no monthly drawdowns in the Luxembourg-based Diversified Corporate Lending Fund.

This consistent performance has led Prudent Group to be recognized as a serious player in the emerging markets credit space. The group’s concept, has now been validated, not only evident by its growing AUM in the Diversified Corporate Lending Fund, but also with Prudent recently being awarded a market leading institutional mandate. This recent mandate speaks not only to the unique nature of their product, but also the barriers to entry into this credit niche. Effectively without a significant presence on the ground and a local infrastructure in place, it would be almost impossible for international investors to successfully enter and profit from the Brazilian receivables market without a local partner.

Having established a strong foundation, with total committed assets of over $500mm, with an experienced local team in place, Prudent is pleased to offer three new strategies in 2018 through vehicles aimed at capturing the domestic US investor, as well as the offshore marketplace.

As Brazil emerges from the worst recessions in its history, many companies have been adversely affected. The Prudent Mezzanine Fund will provide both working capital and operational expertise to these companies to re-establish themselves in the marketplace and bring their operations back to, or even beyond, previous levels.

Currently merchants (stores, service providers, etc.) wait 30 to 45 days to receive payment from a credit card transaction, creating a significant strain on their working capital position. The Prudent Payment Processing Fund aims to streamline these inefficiencies by advancing funds to merchants to bridge the gap between their customer’s transactions and the merchant being reimbursed.

Given Prudent’s significant direct lending experience in its existing fund vehicles, North America presented a logical expansion of its fund business. Prudent has identified multiple borrowers that have existing financing needs for planned growth within North America. The Prudent North American Opportunities Fund; aims to provide financing for businesses in three distinct sectors that offered realizable collateral – such as earned receivables with end payors that have strong credit quality.

With these additional products and a fully staffed team in Brazil, Prudent Group are now ready and look forward to the next phase of their expansion. To effectively serve the new offerings, Prudent has substantially expanded their investor relations team through the addition of several seasoned and accomplished professionals. This dedicated teams aim is to effectuate the operations necessary for the new offerings, in addition to supporting the needs of current and new investors as they become part of the Prudent family. They are led by two individuals who will utilize their distinct experience to offer unparalleled expertise and service to the firm’s investors.

The first of these is Rob Jurgens, a seasoned finance professional having worked both in the United States and internationally in Senior Management positions at many major financial institutions. Most recently, Mr. Jurgens worked with UBS as a portfolio manager for foundations, UHNW individuals, and family offices. Prior to that, he held Senior Management positions at Morgan Stanley, Thompson, Siegal & Walmsley, Jacobs Asset Management, Nomura, and AIG.

He is supported by Michael Mahar, who brings over 10 years of professional experience including fixed income trading and business development. Most recently, he was with Brevet Capital in New York, an alternative credit manager, where his primary responsibilities were fundraising and investor relations for global asset managers, pension funds, endowments, and large family offices. Mr. Mahar has mainly held roles assisting in the development of new business and ongoing client interfacing. He holds a degree in Business Administration with a focus on Finance and Management from Georgetown University.

Together Mr. Jurgens, Mr. Mahar, the investor relations team and the existing infrastructure at Prudent is excited for this next chapter in their growth, and are looking forward to emulating the success they have experienced since inception.

Company: Prudent Investment Fund

Niklas Klemming – Associate – [email protected] – +1-305-812-9233

Jady Sumida – Associate – [email protected] – +55-11-99427-5738

Richard Reich – Analyst – [email protected] –  +1-516-902-9066

Website: www.prudentgroup.us

Categories: Finance


You Might Also Like
Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Thriving in  Challenging Times
Innovation
01/06/2017Thriving in Challenging Times

The London based company in the Information Technology sector, International Professional GAUGE Development (IPGD PLC.), recently enjoyed success in the 2017 Business Elite Awards – UK.

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Yahoo’s Tax Free Plans for Alibaba Stake
Finance
21/05/2015Yahoo’s Tax Free Plans for Alibaba Stake

Shares in the new company would be distributed among shareholders and the transaction could save as much as $16 billion

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
2016’s Most Innovative Hedge Fund Manager – USA/Europe
Finance
31/07/20162016’s Most Innovative Hedge Fund Manager – USA/Europe

The Prudent Group are a highly innovative company who provide working capital to the small and midsize corporate market segment sector. We spoke to Dennis Klemming, Chairman of Prudent Group, to find out more about their firm and the solutions they offer.

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Endless-Backed High Street TV Secondary MBO
Finance
03/06/2015Endless-Backed High Street TV Secondary MBO

Endless-Backed High Street TV Secondary MBO

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Quantitative Easing and How it Affects The UK Economy
Strategy
02/07/2020Quantitative Easing and How it Affects The UK Economy

Quantitative easing is a monetary policy used by the governments of nations during difficult economic times to boost the economy. Quantitative easing comes into play when a nation is grappling with drastic economic slowdown or recession.

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Poll Reveals Most UK Workers Are Putting IT Networks At Risk
Leadership
12/12/2019Poll Reveals Most UK Workers Are Putting IT Networks At Risk

Nearly half of working Brits are visiting sites or opening email attachments that could cause a virus, malware or ransomware attack, according to a new UK-wide study commissioned for strategic IT consultancy, Aura Technology*. The anonymous poll of 2,000 offic

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Most Outstanding Corporate Catering Services Provider 2021 – Australia
Leadership
10/05/2022Most Outstanding Corporate Catering Services Provider 2021 – Australia

We catch up with the founder of Catering HQ, Steve Sidd, to discuss with him the nitty gritty of operating in the modern catering industry. With so many catering and hospitality companies offering similar – if not the same – menu items and services, Cateri

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Morgan Tucker Acquisition of BES Consulting Engineers
Finance
27/05/2015Morgan Tucker Acquisition of BES Consulting Engineers

Morgan Tucker Acquisition of BES Consulting Engineers

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
How to Grow Your Business in 2022: Best Strategies to Use
News
30/06/2022How to Grow Your Business in 2022: Best Strategies to Use

The business development life cycle is a five-stage process: launch, growth, shake-out, maturity, and decline. When a company comes to the maturity stage, there are only two options left: reorganize the business and move forward with it, or finish its lifecycl



Our Trusted Brands

Acquisition International is a flagship brand of AI Global Media. AI Global Media is a B2B enterprise and are committed to creating engaging content allowing businesses to market their services to a larger global audience. We have 14 unique brands, each of which serves a specific industry or region. Each brand covers the latest news in its sector and publishes a digital magazine and newsletter which is read by a global audience.

Arrow