Gold Sea, a new Brazilian tourism company, was established last week, in the city of Curitiba in South Brazil. The firm should operate in participation in tourism projects in the Northeast of Brazil. The focus, according to its president, Alexandre Caiado, will be drawing foreign investment to tourist enterprises in the region, especially from the Middle East and Asia.
According to the businessman, talks are already in progress with investors in Lebanon and Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. "In 2009 it will be hard to collect fund in the United States and Europe, whereas in the Middle East they are diversifying their investment and turning funds all over the world. Not that the region is immune to the crisis, but it is a little better than others," said Caiado.
While there is capital seeking opportunities in the Arab world, the businessman says that the Northeast of Brazil, despite being a greatly sought tourist destination, still has much to be explored.
The beaches of the northeast are traditionally sought by Europeans, both by tourists and investors seeking business. In recent years, several enterprises have been built in the region with Spanish and Portuguese capital.
The idea is to attract funds for minority participation in projects that have already been approved and, preferably, are already in execution. "With minority participation in different projects we pulverize the risk," said Caiado.
Apart from that, according to him, investing in enterprises already approved by public organizations eliminates the possibility of potential embargos for environmental or other reasons.
The businessman believes that the crisis should not bar the business. According to him, the values of real estate in the northeast of Brazil have grown much in recent months, but now they should drop, which opens opportunities for further participation in projects in progress at cheaper cost.
"They are projects with long-term maturity, a resort, for example, takes three to four years to be ready. That is, we will have the benefit of offering the real estate to the market in a period of recovery," said Caiado.
Gold Sea has among its founding members Caiado himself, plus businessmen Elias Sabbag, Nunes Figueiredo and ambassador Jório Dauster, former president of mining company Vale do Rio Doce. The board of governors of the organization also includes Maurício Schulman, former president of Eletrobrás and of the board of governors of smelter CSN, and Péricles Figueiredo.
The company has authorized capital, but not yet fulfilled, of 750 million Brazilian reais (US$ 317 million) and plans to make possible investment of 200 million reais (US$ 84 million) next year.
Service
Gold Sea
Tel: (+55 11) 3015-5566
Email: alexandre@goldsea.com.br
Website: www.goldsea.com.br
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