At the end of October 2007, an unusual event for Latin America occured. The Sao Paulo Stock Exchange, the famous Bovespa, the main public capital market in the region, carried out a successful public stock offering. The price of the Bovespa Holding shares shot up more than 52% in the first day of trading, taking its market capitalization to some US$13 billion. Not at all bad if you compare it to the market value of the Nasdaq or the NYSE Euronext, of approximately US$5 billion and US$24 billion respectively.
The IPO puts Bovespa in the middle of the consolidation trend of the world exchanges --NYSE Euronext, in fact, acquired some of the shares offered in October--and crowns, for the moment, an evolution that has made it stand out from the rest of the regions stock exchanges. A good part of this evolution answers to the Sao Paulo exchange president, Raymundo Magliano Filho’s vision.
Sixty-five year old Magliano, is a true stock market veteran He began his career in his father’s stock trading company, 50 years ago, where he started off as a messenger. In 2001, he became the president of the Bovespa.
The mark of Magliano’s career, however, is not his early relationship with the stock world. It has been his interest in philosophy and human sciences that guided his transformation of Bovespa. Admirer of the Italian philosopher Norberto Bobbio, he adopted the principle formulated by this thinker, that a democratic society rests on three pillars: visibility, transparency and access. Magliano pushed for the creation of the Novo Mercado, a section of the exchange that values shares of companies that give their shareholders rights that go beyond what is stipulated by law.
He also promoted the popularization of market investments with imagination and creativity. In 2002, he created the “Bovespa goes to you” program, from which other programs were organized, such as “Bovespa goes to the factory,” in partnership with Força Sindical, an organization that brings together more than 1,000 unions and confederations with 14 million members, through which, and with the help of the traders, investment societies were created among workers. He also launched programs such as “Bovespa goes to the beach,” “Bovespa goes to college,” “Bovespa goes to Petrobras,” etc. He also has the “Bovespa Delivery” program, through which a truck equipped with computer and video terminals --the Bovmobile--offers a mobile exchange promotion office.
One of the objectives of these programs is to make people lose their fear of the market. “The pocketbook is a human being’s most sensitive organ,” Magliano has indicated. But, his message is that despite fluctuations, stock investment provides long term gains. “Investing in stocks is like riding a bicycle. At first you fall and get bruised, but later you gains confidence and it becomes a calm experience.”
