São Paulo and Miami: how igc's global reach strengthens a competitive process
Reading time
5 minutes
Date
Aug 4, 2026
Author
Murilo Oliveira — Partner, igc Partners
A well-conducted sale is, at its core, the creation of competition for an asset. The more qualified and genuinely interested buyers competing for the company, the stronger the seller's position to negotiate price and structure, and the lower the risk of accepting an offer just because it is the only one. The point is not to talk to many people, but to ensure that the right buyers, the ones who most value that specific asset, are all at the table. And frequently, some of these right buyers are not in Brazil.
Because an asset can have, for an international group, a strategic value that a local buyer does not see: the gateway to a large market, a piece missing from the global portfolio, a capacity or a position hard to build from scratch in another country. Often this buyer has never been in Brazil, and the asset is precisely its entry into an entirely new market. That is why it tends to be the one that pays the most and offers the best terms: the acquisition is worth, to it, access to an entire country, not just another deal. Leaving these buyers out of the process is leaving value on the table.
It is not having a long list of contacts of funds and companies abroad. Being truly global means going beyond the foreign players already looking at Brazil: it means finding, around the world, buyers who have never been in the country, identifying which of them have a strategic reason to enter and enabling that move. This requires real relationships with the decision-makers at those buyers, understanding each one's thesis to know whom that asset interests, and being able to conduct the process to the standards the international buyer expects, in language, materials, governance and pace. It is the difference between firing off a message to a list and actually bringing the right foreign buyer, often one that had never looked at Brazil, into a competitive process.
igc was built to bring the right buyers, national and foreign, to the same table for an asset. With operations in São Paulo and in Miami, the firm accesses international investors through relationships and method, not through lists, and integrates this access into a competitive process conducted by the partners. More than half of the firm's transactions involve foreign players, and the base totals more than 6,000 buyers mapped in Brazil and abroad, the universe that gives the seller the real measure of what the asset is worth.
International interest in Brazilian companies is consistent. According to KPMG, in the first half of 2025 acquisitions of Brazilian companies by foreign investors grew by about 12%, with the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Spain among the main origins, even in a period of slight decline in domestic operations. For the entrepreneur, the message is direct: the set of potential buyers of a well-positioned company does not end at the border, and expanding the process beyond it is one of the most concrete ways to protect value.
Yes. International interest is not restricted to large companies: a mid-sized asset with a clear competitive position, good governance and a consistent growth thesis can be exactly what a foreign buyer is looking for to enter or grow in Brazil. What opens this door is not the size of the balance sheet, but the quality of the asset combined with reach, relationships and method, to whoever, abroad, sees its value.
igc was built to bring the right buyers, national and foreign, to the same table for an asset. With operations in São Paulo and in Miami, the firm accesses international investors through relationships and method, and integrates this access into a competitive process conducted by the partners. A central part of this reach is getting to buyers who have never been in Brazil and enabling their entry, precisely the ones who tend to pay the most, because for them the asset is the gateway to a new market.
More than half of the firm's transactions involve foreign players, and the base totals more than 6,000 buyers mapped in Brazil and abroad. igc is the leader in sell-side M&A in Latin America over the last five years, with 118 completed transactions, according to the Mergermarket ranking. An owner-to-owner process, with 35 partners.
Because the buyers who most value an asset may be outside the country, sometimes without ever having been in Brazil. Bringing them to compete with the local ones increases competition and tends to improve price and structure, and they are often the ones who pay the most.
No. It is real relationships with the decision-makers, an understanding of each buyer's thesis and the ability to conduct the process to the standards the international buyer expects.
Yes, when they have a clear competitive position, good governance and a growth thesis. What opens the door is the quality of the asset combined with access to the right buyers, not the size.
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